How a letter to Kansas created the Flying Spaghetti Monster

In 2005, a physics graduate wrote a joke letter to the Kansas State Board of Education. Within a year it had a book deal, thousands of emails and a following that called itself Pastafarian. Here is how one satirical letter became a test case for what counts as a religion.

October 31, 2026 · 4 min read · TruthRanking

The first source

The Flying Spaghetti Monster started as a letter. In January 2005, Bobby Henderson, a 24-year-old physics graduate of Oregon State University, wrote to the Kansas State Board of Education, according to Wikipedia. The board was weighing science standards that would open the door to criticism of evolution and to intelligent design.

If schools taught intelligent design next to evolution, he argued, they should also teach that a flying creature made of spaghetti and meatballs created the universe. He asked that class time be split three ways and that the lesson be taught in full pirate regalia. The letter, still hosted on the church's website, explains away carbon dating by saying "the Flying Spaghetti Monster is there changing the results with His Noodly Appendage." It also included a joke chart linking the decline in pirates since the 1800s to rising global temperatures.

The intent was satire. Henderson told The New York Times the being revealed itself to him in a dream, which he credited to lack of sleep and frustration with intelligent design. After receiving no reply, he posted the letter on his website in May 2005, according to Wikipedia.

How it spread

On June 22, 2005, Boing Boing excerpted it, and search interest in the phrase climbed that month, according to Know Your Meme.

By August, the joke had reached the board itself. The Lawrence Journal-World reported on Aug. 24, 2005, that board member Bill Wagnon had received more than 500 emails from supporters. Wagnon and three other board members who backed evolution wrote back to Henderson. On Aug. 19, 2005, Boing Boing announced a mock prize, $250,000 in what it called Intelligently Designed currency and later $1 million, for proof that Jesus was not the son of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.

On Aug. 29, 2005, a New York Times News Service story was syndicated to papers including the Deseret News. Henderson reported that about 95 percent of the email he received supported him. His site claimed more than 10 million people had been touched by the monster.

By late November 2005, the blog search engine Technorati showed more than 5,000 results for the full name, according to Writers Write. Henderson estimated his site was getting 1 to 2 million hits a day and more than 100 million in total. He reported more than 18,000 emails. Wikipedia says the total eventually passed 60,000.

What it became

The letter did not stop the vote. In November 2005, the Kansas board approved new standards 6 to 4, NBC News reported. The standards also redefined science so it was no longer limited to natural explanations. The board reversed course on Feb. 13, 2007, when a new majority voted 6 to 4 to replace the 2005 standards, according to the National Center for Science Education.

The joke also became a brand. Villard Books gave Henderson an $80,000 advance, and The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster came out on March 28, 2006. Followers began calling themselves Pastafarians.

Then it became a legal test. In July 2011, Austrian Niko Alm won the right to wear a pasta strainer in his driver's license photo after three years of effort. On April 16, 2016, a couple married aboard a boat in New Zealand after officials approved the church to officiate weddings. NPR, citing the AP, called it the first official Pastafarian wedding. That same month, U.S. District Judge John Gerrard dismissed a Nebraska prisoner's religious discrimination suit. He found the church is a parody, "intended to advance an argument about science," the ABA Journal reported. In the Netherlands, a court in Groningen ruled in August 2016 that Pastafarianism is a life stance but not a religion, and in August 2018 the Council of State rejected a related appeal, according to Wikipedia.

What the record shows

• The date of the letter. Wikipedia says Henderson sent it in January 2005 and posted it in May. The church's own page labels the letter 2006. His age also varies: Wikipedia gives 24 at the time of the letter, while the August 2005 Times story gave 25. The public record is clearest for May 2005, when the letter went online.
• Who replied. The New York Times story says three board members sent kind letters. The Lawrence Journal-World says four. Wikipedia says three replied positively and a fourth wrote that mocking God is a serious offense.
• The big numbers. The 10 million figure, the 95 percent supportive email, the daily hit counts and the claim of more than 100,000 books sold all come from Henderson. Reporters repeated them, and repetition is not independent confirmation. These figures are unverified, which is different from false.
• Legal recognition. It is often said that Austria recognized the colander as religious headgear. Austrian authorities denied that religion was the basis for the permission. Courts and agencies still split: New Zealand approved Pastafarian celebrants, while a U.S. federal court and Dutch courts declined to treat it as a religion.

This case is one of several in our guide to jokes, hoaxes and lies that became movements.

How to trace a claim like this

1. Find the first source and read it whole. The letter itself shows the intent, from the equal-time demand to the pirate chart. Start with the first source before reading anyone's summary of it.
2. Separate the sending date from the posting date. A private letter in January and a public post in May are two different events. Record both.
3. Check who stands behind each number. The hit counts and email totals here came from Henderson. A newspaper quoting them is republication, not corroboration.
4. Keep satire apart from checkable facts. The pirate chart is a joke about correlation and gets no truth verdict. Vote counts and court rulings can be checked. Our guide on fact versus opinion covers the difference.
5. Follow the record forward. The 2005 vote was later reversed, and legal status differs by country. A claim like "it is a recognized religion" needs a place and a date attached.