Freethinkers and heretics, rejoice! Pastafarianism, humor’s response to the intelligent design debate, now has an official holy book. With The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, founder Bobby Henderson presents full details of his religion, which credits a divine conglomeration of pasta as the Creator of the universe, identifies pirates as His Noodliness’s Chosen People and offers devotees an afterlife with a beer volcano and a stripper factory. What more could a convert want?
Henderson plays it straight, using a formal tone and plausible logic that make his satire convincing as well as comical. This is a Gospel, not a one-time joke, and the author doesn’t let us forget it. Besides the expected religious teachings, there’s a hilarious guide to spreading the Word, a chapter debunking all of science and even an arts and crafts section. The most impressive part is at the end, where 11 writers offer independent proofs– mathematical, teleological, ontological– that the Flying Spaghetti Monster must exist.
The book’s humor moves from general mockery of reactionary beliefs to specific take-offs of history and religion to absolute absurdity that defies explanation. It slows down a little when things start to get repetitive — Henderson occasionally reproduces whole passages — but the overall work is insanely entertaining. The disclaimers alone will have you laughing on the street weeks afterward. And as for the book’s flaws and contradictions, pay them no heed. The Flying Spaghetti Monster carefully placed them there to test His followers’ faith.
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