This parody sprouted a few years ago by a fellow by a certain fello who said that if intelligent design has a claim to be taught in schools, then the gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster has an equal claim to be taught in schools.

This was such a naive statement, because the intelligent design advocates were not proposing that the designer be identified as God. They were proposing that design be taught as an intellectual treatment of the fine-tuning of the universe. But they would leave the theological implications aside.

The parody has gained popularity within the last few decades as internet infidels have spewed forth all manner of mockery and ill comparisons. It has sort of developed into a point of ridicule for all religious people; that if you believe in God, as the creator of the universe, you may as well believe in a giant monster floating around, who is comprised of spaghetti and meatballs. Both of these theories, they defend, have the same intellectual fortitude.

Well that is completely mistaken. The Flying Spaghetti Monster does not have the attributes that the creator of the universe would necessarily have. As the cause of space, and time, the creator of the universe would necessarily be beyond space and time. Since it is the case that the Flying Spaghetti Monster is made of spaghetti and meatballs, it is contingent upon space. Therefore it cannot be the cause of space.

Now, one might reply that, arbitrarily, the Flying Spaghetti Monster does have this attribute; that it is spaceless. But if that is the case, then all one has done is removed everything that makes it a Flying Spaghetti Monster, and given it the attributes of God. For this theory to be defended, the Flying Spaghetti Monster would have to have the same attributes as God; namely, transcendent and personal. But this would undermine the point that it has equal merit to be taught, because for it to be logically consistent, it would have to fundamentally change.

What about the design of the universe? Well, as I indicated earlier, the unrefuted argument from design does not specify who the designer is. So I concede that the Flying Spaghetti Monster could have fine-tuned the universe for life. But this point, obviously does absolutely nothing to undermine the point that the universe is designed. It just kind of assaults the fact that the God of scriptures is not a necessary consequence of this argument. But the argument does not aim to prove that.

In summary, the Flying Spaghetti Monster parody is confused, fallacious and asymmetrical to a personal, transcendent Creator of the universe.