14 - The Pastafarian Memeplex: Joke Religion as a System

Summary

A memeplex is a cluster of memes. The significant aspect of a memeplex is that the memes that form it are mutually supporting. For example, in the traditional patriarchal society we have a meme that considers husbands to be dominant over wives. We also have a meme that only men are allowed to be priests or preach. Clearly, then, these two memes mutually support one another and thus it becomes easier for both memes to replicate. At the upper end of the spectrum of complexity a memeplex is an ideology. At the lower end, trends in popular music or fashion are often a memeplex: think of the early Beatles’ music, their hairdos and their clothing. By providing a complete “image” their memes could spread more easily.

Pastafarianism is a humorous religion which has developed a series of related memes that support each other. Let's start from the beginning: in 2005, Bobby Henderson founded the religion to demand that Pastafarianism be taught along with evolution and intelligent design, in Kansas schools. The Kansas Board of Education had voted that “intelligent design” should be taught along evolution. Henderson's point was that if a religious viewpoint, which has no scientific standing, was going to be taught in schools, then why not teach that the Flying Spaghetti Monster (FSM) had created the Earth, fossils and all? The FSM creation myth parodies the biblical creation narrative, but includes a beer volcano and mentions that Adam and Eve live in the Olive Garden of Eden (Olive Garden is a pseudo-Italian food chain, quite popular in the United States).

Henderson posted his letter to the Board of Education on his website, where it went viral (https://web.archive.org/web/20070407182624/http://www.venganza.org/about/open-letter/). In 2006, he published The Gospel of the Flying Spaghetti Monster, which has sold over 10,000 copies and been translated in several languages. Other books include The Loose Canon (http://www.loose-canon.info/Loose-Canon-1st-Ed.pdf) and The New Testament of The Flying Spaghetti Monster: Dinner 2.0 (https://unitarianchurchofpasta.files.wordpress.com/2018/06/for-free-here3.pdf). Henderson still maintains an active website (http://venganza.org). According to Bauer (2018), Pastafarianism has “tens of thousands” of adherents, primarily in Western countries (North America, Western Europe, Australia and New Zealand).