26 August 2005

Touched by His Noodly Appendage

You know, I tend to talk an awful lot about Jesus in this blog. It's true that I'm pretty hung up on the guy, but in the interest of equal time, I feel I'd be remiss if I didn't make a passing reference to the Flying Spaghetti Monster. He may not quite be my kind of deity, but he has every bit as much of a place in the science classroom as does Biblical creationism (or some watered-down version of it called Intelligent Design "Theory"). Some day soon, in the name of giving kids all the "facts" and letting them make up their own minds, high school science students will have the opportunity to choose between Judeo-Christian theism, FSM Pastafarianism, and, well, just learning actual science. That is, if there's still time to learn science in between all the vague, neutered Biblical exegesis and the dressing up like pirates to learn about His Divine Noodliness. And don't forget the Norse point of view.

But hey, how are kids going to make informed choices if we don't give them all the information? And Flying Spaghetti Monster is relevant to other subjects too. (Math--who created all those numbers? English--whose meatballs rumbled with the first syllables of language? Home Ec--well, it's obvious.) So He should be part of the curriculum in every subject. Then, and only then, will students have all the facts. And every moment of their public school education will be an opportunity to by Touched by His Noodly Appendage. I just hope that the same thing is happening in other countries, or we may find ourselves in a spot of trouble a few years from now....

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