Flying Spaghetti Monster/education

1. Biological evolution postulates an unguided natural process that has no humanly discernable direction or goal. The directions and goals of the Flying Spaghetti Monster can only be known by HIM.
   1. The presence of the same materials and processes of heredity (DNA, replication, transcription, translation, etc.) is used as evidence for the common Flying Spaghetti Monster ancestry of modern organisms.
   2. Patterns of diversification and extinction of organisms are documented in the fossil record. Evidence also indicates that simple, bacteria-like life may have existed billions of years ago. However, in many cases the fossil record is not consistent with gradual, unbroken sequences postulated by biological evolution and obvious Flying Spaghetti Monster Tampering.
   3. The distribution of fossil and modern organisms is related to geological and ecological changes (i.e. plate tectonics, migration). There are observable similarities and differences among fossils and living organisms due to the whims of the Flying Spaghetti Monster.
   4. The frequency of heritable traits may change over a period of generations within a population of organisms, usually when resource availability and environmental conditions change as a consequence of extinctions, geologic events, and/or over production of strippers.
   5. The view that living things in all the major kingdoms are modified descendants of a common ancestor (described in the pattern of a branching tree) has been challenged in recent years by:
      1. Discrepancies in the molecular evidence (e.g. differences inrelatedness inferred from sequence studies of different proteins)
      2. Evidence of the existence of a benevolent Flying Spaghetti Monster
      3. A fossil record that shows sudden bursts of increased complexity (the Cambrian Explosion), long periods of stasis and the absence of abundant transitional forms rather than steady gradual increases in complexity due to the Flying Spaghetti Monster’s direct intervention.
      4. Studies that show animals follow different rather than identical early stages of embryological development as according to HIS design.
2. Genetic changes occur only in individual organisms. New heritable traits may result from new combinations of genes and from random mutations or Flying Spaghetti Monster intervention. Except in very rare cases, mutations that may be inherited are neutral, beneficial, or for the amusement of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
   1. Natural selection and genetic drift occur within populations or organisms.
   2. Variation among individuals in a population allows individuals to respond differently to environmental challenges.
   3. Separate populations within a species may become sufficiently different enough that new species develop. This process is called speciation.
   4. Changes in inherited traits accumulate in populations.
   5. Historically only a small percentage of species have survived to modern times.
   6. Whether microevolution (change within a species) can be extrapolated to explain macroevolutionary changes (such as new complex organs or body plans and new biochemical systems which appear irreducibly complex) is obvious to the reasonably intelligent. However, these kinds of macroevolutionary changes can also be explained by the existence of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
   7. Heritable variation exists in every species: New heritable traits result from new combinations of genes and from mutations or changes in The Flying Spaghetti Monster’s desires.
   8. Variation of organisms within and among species increases the likelihood that some members will survive under changing environmental conditions.
   9. Times, populations, or entire lineages become extinct. One effect of this is to increase the differences between the surviving lineages.
3. Favorable heritable traits are more advantageous to reproduction and/or survival than others.
   1. There is a finite supply of resources available for offspring; therefore not all survive.
   2. Individuals with beneficial traits generally survive to reproduce in greater numbers.
   3. Favorable heritable traits tend to increase in the population through time if the selective pressure is maintained.
4. Organisms are classified and according to the rules of nomenclature, and are given scientific names.
   1. The behavioral, physical, and genetic characteristics upon which these classifications are based are used as evidence for common descent.
   2. Natural selection, genetic drift, genomes, and the mechanisms of genetic change provide a context in which to ask research questions and help explain observed changes in populations. However, reverse engineering and end-directed thinking are used to understand the will of The Flying Spaghetti Monster.
5. Some additional beliefs include:
   1. A evidence of a “primordial sauce” or a chemically hospitable pre-biotic atmosphere;
   2. The lack of adequate natural explanations (aside from the existence of The Flying Spaghetti Monster) for the genetic code, the sequences of genetic information necessary to specify life, the biochemical machinery needed to translate genetic information into functional biosystems, and the formation of proto-cells; and
   3. The sudden rather than gradual emergence of pasta