Hallowed Be Thy Noodles

At worship with the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster

- Andrew Richdale

In the beginning, there was pasta.

Out of the void sprang a colossal tangle of it accompanied by two proportionately large, red-sauced meatballs. On its first day, soaring through nothingness, this supernatural spaghetti being resolved to split the water from the heavens. And after much flying and building stuff, it grew weary and created somewhere to rest: land and—why not?—a volcano that spat alcohol. Later, after the world’s first hangover, came seas, humans, and the rest of creation. 

And so, according to the Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, our world was formed. This is the creation myth first expounded in 2005 by physics student Bobby Henderson, who argued in an open letter to the Kansas Board of Education that his religion based on pasta was every bit as scientifically valid as Intelligent Design and therefore should be taught in schools. He published the letter and his god’s eight commandments, or I Really Rather You Didn’ts, online and they soon went viral. Around the world, many thousands of self-identifying Pastafarians posted selfies wearing the church’s official headgear, a stainlesssteel colander.