In the months since Sarah and I took over Galleycat, one of our most popular items has been the story of the Flying Spaghetti Monster book deal. Naturally, when “intelligent design” zealots lost their Pennslyvania court case, I wondered what Bobby Henderson, who’s built up an appreciative audience for his “Pastafarian” theory of creation, made of the judge’s decision. I thought Henderson’s interview with Wired News might provide the answer, but no such luck. It does, however, offer his best advice for dealing with the creationist yahoos:
“The science community, itself, is pretty quiet about the issue. Their strategy is to ignore the “debate” so that the ID people don’t get the forum… They need to be out there calling these people retarded all the time. Nonstop. The ID people are winning because the scientists think if they ignore the issue, it will go away. Plus, I’m sure it would be therapeutic to make fun of the ID people.”
Having just watched the creationism episode of Penn & Teller: Bullshit!, I can certainly attest to that last sentiment. Meanwhile, Dilbert creator Scott Adams uses his blog to ponder the issue and decides intelligence is overrated. It’s the sort of philosophizing most of us probably haven’t seen since that kegger sophomore year: “If God exists… He wouldn’t need intelligence to make him happy, and he has no risk to his survival, so what type of intelligence would an omnipotent being possess?”