In 2005, the Kansas State Board of Education held hearings to reconfigure how Evolution would be taught in the State's high school science curriculum. Unfortunately for high school students in Kansas the Board of Education was largely composed of conservative Christians and advocates for Intelligent Design. After a four day hearing the Board of Education's vote approved a Critical Analysis of Evolution, forcing religion into the classroom. In this moment of great disparity and cultural regression, a giant flying ball of spaghetti and meatballs made itself known to Bobby Henderson.

In 2005, the Kansas State Board of Education held hearings to reconfigure how Evolution would be taught in the State's high school science curriculum. Unfortunately for high school students in Kansas the Board of Education was largely composed of conservative Christians and advocates for Intelligent Design. After a four day hearing the Board of Education's vote approved a Critical Analysis of Evolution, forcing religion into the classroom. In this moment of great disparity and cultural regression, a giant flying ball of spaghetti and meatballs made itself known to Bobby Henderson, author of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

Originating as an open letter to the Kansas State Board of Education, The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster presents itself as a sincere and genuine religious document praising a spaghetti like deity which controls all the universe with its invisible "noodly appendages,". Of course this is just a means of lampooning the very religions which are so critical of Evolution. Completely irreverent and often hilarious, Henderson is clearly striving to craft the most idiotic of all religions in order to show his readers how truly close the Flying Spaghetti Monster(FSM) is to the Christian ideal of a god.

Loyal to his original letter, the author's primary target in this book is the scientific community and evolutionary theory itself. Henderson goes so far as to title the first section of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, "The Blunders of Science." Basic scientific theories are explained through the eyes of a true believer of the Flying Spaghetti Monster's ways. For example did you know early humans walked with a slouched posture because the Flying Spaghetti Monster was able to dedicate more noodly appendages to each person, a result of the much smaller population size? Also, did you know that Charles Darwin only developed his ideas on natural selection and evolution because he was "Probably mildly retarded,"? It's true and it's all here in The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster!

One of the more interesting revelations Henderson details in this book is that humans did not evolve from ape like creatures as many science teachers would have us believe. Rather humans have descended from a long line of Pirates. Yes, the modern human evolved from actual seafaring, plundering, peg legged Pirates. After all, as the gospel states "scientists tell us we share 95 percent of our DNA with chimpanzees, and yet we share 99.9 percent of our DNA with pirates." This is why followers of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Pastafarians as they're referred to in the book, dress up like Pirates in order to worship their god.

As silly as this book is, rest assured that all the silliness is intentional and it's all for a good cause. If schools introduce the idea of Intelligent Design into the classroom they're actively confusing students, denying them what has taken hundreds of years of scientific evaluation to discover about our past on this planet. When teachers blindly refute the scientific method in their classrooms, they will discourage critical thinking and that type of behavior has no place in an education institution. After all, if the bible, or any religious text which requires a leap of faith, is taught in a science class then why not a book about a flying monster made from pasta and meatballs?

If you've been ordained with the ULC Ministries then you know it doesn't matter whether you're an Atheist, a Christian, a high school student in Kansas, a Pastafarian, or simply a fan of the ridiculous. The same can be said for this book, no matter your spiritual outlook The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is worth picking up. We at the ULC Ministries encourage all our ministers to speak out about religion and their personal beliefs. Let us know what your beliefs about teaching Evolution and Intelligent Design in the classroom are. You can pick up your own copy of The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster right now from the ULC Ministries's bookstore.