Monday, May 7, 2012

Atheistic Issues: Flying Spaghetti Monster


picture from www.venganza.org

Atheistic Issues: Flying Spaghetti Monster

The Flying Spaghetti Monster is the deity of "Pastafarianism" a fake religion invented to mock Christianty and the God of the Bible. It was started when a man by the name of Bobby Henderson wrote an open letter to the Kansas School Board. The point of the letter was to say, in an inflamitory way, that teaching intelligent design to students in public school is stupid. What is interesting is how quickly Atheists grabbed on to the letter and turned it into a phenominon. It continues to spawn internet debates and youtube videos and is frequently used by Atheists to attack belief in God. I would like to explain why I think its moronic.

In my "logic and critical thinking" class, I learned that it is a logical fallacy (a lie) to compare two things that are not alike. This is called a "strawman" fallacy. In my family they just call this comparing "apples and oranges".  Meaning that these things simply can't be fairly compared. This doesn't stop many from doing it, quite frequently when they are trying to put down the God of the Bible.  One of the more common sarcastic attacks I have heard toward Christianity is this idea that we "have just as much evidence to believe in the God of the Bible as someone may have to believe in a Flying Spaghetti Monster." The problem is that this sort of statement, while coming off as intellectually superior, is simply a logical fallacy (apples and oranges).  Now, it does sound good to the Atheist who is thinking "I will make up something we all think is ridiculous and compare it to God so that you will think He is ridiculous too".

Did the guy who invented the "Flying Spaghetti Monster" think is was true?
      NO

Was God (as described in the Bible) put forth as fact of reality?
      YES

Is there any shred of evidence put forth to support the idea of the "Flying Spaghetti Monster"?
      NO, in fact it was purposely made as non-credible as possible. It was designed for unbelief.

Is there any evidence put forth to support the idea of "God" (as described in the Bible)?
     YES
The "Flying Spaghetti Monster" is obviously an invented thing intended to be stupid and offensive by the inventor. It is not intellectually honest to compare this to God. It is, however, a cleverly designed attempt to stupefy believers in the eyes of those who don't see the fallacy (the lie) of it, to make Christians (and all Theists) look as though they are fools. It's like saying "if I can't defeat the idea of God I will just make up something I can defeat, beat it up all day and then tell everyone that it was God"

But what is the BIGGEST issue with this Pasta Deity? It is an attempt to move the conversation away from a discussion of the evidence by simply, and falsely, saying that Christianity has NO evidence for God. The evidence needs to be discussed and examined. Creation declares the glory of God and the earth shows His handiwork (Psalm 19). This is simply an attempt to ignore the evidence (i.e. change the subject).

When comparing the God of the Bible to other gods we need to remember something very important. They are apples and oranges. Other religions are not based on evidences and proofs. Polytheistic beliefs are not only ridiculous in their very appearance but they don't have any evidence NOR seem to care about supporting their beliefs with evidence.  The Bible, on the other hand, presents large amounts of testable statements and evidences as proofs. The God of the Bible does not, in any way, resemble these other deities.

There are two majorly different usages of the word "god"
  1. god: a powerful being (but still made of matter and consisting in the universe) with superhuman abilities. Generally able to control the fate or affect the situations of people. Not eternal, not all powerful, not all knowing.
  2. God: (the God of the Bible and monotheistic religions)- much more than a powerful being, He is the maker of ALL matter. Himself NOT consisting of anything in the universe. Having no beginning and no end. Eternal, not because He is old but because He is outside of time. Not only "powerful" but quite literally the source of all power and with the ability to influence anything. Not part of the creation but it's Creator. Not an old man in the sky.
Once upon a time people would respect these two different definitions by using the appropriate capitalization. Unfortunately, many are deliberately (and many unintentionally) typing "God" when they should type "god". The end result is that people are being set up to accept the logical fallacy (the lie) of comparing God to a god.

I am not writing this post to convince people to believe in that God (that is a different post all together) but simply to recognize the DIFFERENCE between the God of monotheism and any other religious deity (like Zeus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster). If they are totally and fundamentally different ideas then what debunks Zeus or the Flying Spaghetti Monster has no application in proving or disproving God.

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