Flying Spaghetti Monster
From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science
The Flying Spaghetti Monster is a fictitious character invented to parody God, which has become popular in anticreationist and anti-Intelligent Design circles. It was created in 2005 to protest the decision by the Kansas State Board of Education to require the teaching of intelligent design.
Intention, Comparisons and Contrasts
The intention of the parady is to ridicule the idea of Intelligent Design (ID) being taught in schools, by claiming that if ID is taught, the creation of the world by the Flying Spaghetti Monster has as much right to be taught as well. The parody misses its mark, however, as it overlooks some key factors that make it different to Intelligent Design. The following table compares and contrasts a number of similarities and differences between the Flying Spaghetti Monster, evolution, Intelligent Design, and the creation model.
| Flying Spaghetti Monster | Evolution | Intelligent Design | Creationism |
|---|---|---|---|
| Intended as parody | Intended as science | Intended as science | Intended as a scientific model of intelligent design |
| Creator (the Flying Spaghetti Monster itself) assumed to exist and identified | Creator assumed not to exist | Creator (designer) inferred from the evidence but not identified | Creator assumed to exist and specifically identified |
| Evidence for evolution claimed to be planted by the creator | Evidence for evolution is not to be questioned | Evidence for evolution challenged with academic arguments | Evidence for evolution challenged with academic arguments |
| Creator makes things appear older than they are as a test of faith | Accepts uniformitarian ages | Generally accepts uniformitarian ages | Rejects uniformitarian ages as based on unprovable presuppositions |
| Has no genuine support in the scientific community | Has the support of the vast majority of scientists | Has the support of (at least) thousands of scientists | Has the support of (at least) thousands of scientists |
| Has no supporting evidence | Has supporting evidence thst is highly contested | Has supporting evidence | Has supporting evidence |
It can be seen from the comparison above that there is no basis for teaching students about the Flying Spaghetti Monster, but the same cannot be said for Intelligent Design nor creation.
Anticreationists and anti-ID proponents repeatedly "overlook" that people who propose teaching Intelligent Design and/or creation in science classes are actually proposing that scientific evidence consistent with those viewpoints be taught, and that proposing that other "theories" that have no scientific evidence supporting them also be taught as if that is an equivalent situation is simply a case of refusing to address the issues.
