Blog of the Week: Bobby Henderson and The Flying Spaghetti Monster phenomenon

If you haven't heard of the fervent believers in the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM), if you haven't been touched by his Noodly Appendage, if you haven't read about the Pastafarian movement, you obviously haven't been paying attention. At least not to the ongoing (and now approved) debate in the great state of Kansas, where "intelligent design" has been voted into the science curriculum as an alternative to evolution.

Earlier this year, when the Kansas Board of Education opened the doors to alternate theories about how the world started, Bobby Henderson, a 25-year-old, single, unemployed physics major from Corvallis, Oregon, walked right in. He wrote a letter asking the Kansas educators to consider teaching HIS theory that the world was, in fact, created by a Flying Spaghetti Monster (complete with a pirate side story and a nod to global warming). When he got no response, he posted the letter to a web site.

The FSM/"Open Letter" site has become a popular destination for bloggers, sporadically but routinely ranking among the most-shared links at BlogPulse.com. It's also launched a line of FSM/Noodly Appendage products (one of which recently sold on eBay for $510). Henderson describes the phenomenon in an e-mail interview.

Q. Where did the idea for Flying Spaghetti Monster come from and who was involved? Was it a spur-of-the-moment thing or had it been in the works for a while?
A. "The original letter was spur of the moment, written when I couldn't sleep one night. It was as much for my own amusement as anything. As for the Flying Spaghetti Monster himself, it was divine inspiration, I think. I never planned on putting (the letter) online...it was months before I finally got around to it. (I was) annoyed by receiving no reply."

Q. The letter/site has obviously spawned an entire movement. Were you surprised by the reaction?
A. "Yes, of course I was surprised by the explosion of the site. It's received well over 100 million hits now, currently at about 1 to 2 million/day (including hot-linked images, which I totally support - helps spread the propaganda). I have received more than 18,000 e-mails, currently 5,800 unread. I get anywhere from 50 to 300 e-mails a day, depending on the news."

Q. I'm sure you've been interviewed by news media outlets all over the place. Where, and what were the most unusual ones? (I'm assuming you've had international coverage as well?)
A. "I have no idea how many interviews I've done now, but I prefer the international ones. Had an interesting one from the Federated States of Micronesia (FSM). The project caught their attention because at one point the Flying Spaghetti Monster (also FSM) was out-Googling their government home page."

Q. Despite your best efforts, the Kansas board decided (in early November) to adopt intelligent design anyway. How do you interpret the vote?
A. "The Kansas vote wasn't a surprise. But it is interesting that no one mentioned teaching FSM. (Check this out: If you do a Google search for "intelligent design," the Open Letter site ranks No. 5; the Discovery Institute (which promotes intelligent design) ranks No. 11). FSM is now the preferred theory of intelligent design, and still we're being ignored. It makes me think that the conservative Kansas school board members are actually closet Pastafarians, only pretending to be close-minded religious nuts in order to garner the support of the conservative community. Now that they've taken control of the Board, they're working from the inside, re-defining science to include supernatural theories, thus opening the door for FSM to be taught one day."

Q. Will Kansas voters do next year what Dover PA voters did this year? (for the unaware: they voted all the Intelligent Design proponents off their school board on Nov. 8).
A. "I suspect there will be a lawsuit disputing the Kansas school board's right to re-define science to allow magic (supernatural theories = magic). It's hard to say if the conservative members of the Board will get the boot in the next elections because you have to remember, the entire state of Kansas is crazy. They don't let you in unless you think the earth is less than 5,000 years old and that we all rode around on dinosaurs, etc.

"If I had a dinosaur, he would eat whoever I wanted him to."

Q. There's now an entire product line of FSM/Pastafarian/Noodly Appendage stuff. Do people just send you ideas? Do you have a quality control person?
A. "The FSM merchandise wasn't my idea. Everything for sale was asked for by [crazy] people. There have been somewhere around 20,000 shirts sold now. I actually saw someone with an FSM emblem on their car a while ago. I heard a rumor that FSM stuff will make really good Christmas presents. All proceeds will go toward The Cause."

Q. Pirates? Did you have any inkling that real pirates would, in fact, be in the news this year (raiding cruise liners?).
A. "I received hundreds of emails about that 'pirate attack' on the cruise ship. Incidentally, we saw no change in global weather because REAL pirates use swords. They don't have machine guns and speedboats."

Q. What's next?
A. "Next, we're going to form a 'real' church, set up as a non-profit organization, and then purchase a pirate ship for missionary work, completely tax-exempt. Anything and everything the other religions get away with, we're going to try. I'm totally serious about the pirate ship, by the way.

"Most importantly, there's an FSM book coming out in February (The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster). I am pretty sure the other religions are going to just give up after reading it."