Saturday, April 19, 2008

A Book in Review – The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

Book Count: 31

The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster By: Bobby Henderson
Non-Fiction: politics, humor 166 pages 2006


This book is a little confusing. It starts out as a humorous book against intelligent design being taught as science, as it isn’t scientifically able to be tested. (Given as science cannot prove or disprove the existence of God.) It does this by pointing out that much like we can’t scientifically prove what caused evolution we can’t prove why gravity exists. The book’s answer: an invisible flying spaghetti monster that uses its noodley arms to push us down and who messes with test results to hide the truth of its existence from scientist. So far that all makes sense. (Really it does!) But then it becomes a book on the beliefs and practice of people who believe in the flying spaghetti monster, also known as Pastafarians. This part is funny and fun to read, but has little to do with the first part of the book, except in it’s use of science and math to prove the truths of the religion, such as the “scientific” proof that a lack of pirates is what causes global warming. (The flying spaghetti monster has a thing for pirates which is why it gets colder after “talk like a pirate day” [September] and Halloween [October], a day started by pirates according to Pastafarians, and a day people dress as pirates. The parts on why there are the increases of extreme storms due to global warming was actually “based” on how pirates sailing in the Caribbean effect ocean water temps and weather patterns.) It then ends with reconnecting to the first idea in a short two page letter to the reader.

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