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Informativos Telecinco.com - El espagueti volador - El espagueti volador: una alternativa a las teorías creacionistas

http://www.informativos.telecinco.es/monstruo-e...

clipped by ky1008 Aug 30, 2006

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El espagueti volador: una alternativa a las teorías creacionistas

SHEILA GRANDÍO
29 de agosto de 2005

Lo que comenzó siendo una broma entre amigos se ha convertido, gracias a Internet, en un pequeño movimiento popular. Un grupo de universitarios estadounidenses ha elaborado una tesis que basa el inicio de la vida en la existencia de un ser superior con cuerpo de fideos –como los de la sopa. Suena absurdo, evidentemente. Pero sus autores creen que si la comunidad científica termina dando validez a las teorías religiosas, los libros de texto podrían llenarse de explicaciones sobre el universo tan disparatadas como la suya. Fieles, al menos en Internet, no les faltan.

Todo empezó en junio. Un estudiante de Física estadounidense envió una carta abierta al consejo escolar de la Universidad de Kansas en la que aseguraba que el universo había sido creado por un ser llamado el “monstruo del espagueti volador”. En la irónica misiva se instaba al rectorado de este centro a que los planes de estudios incluyeran la enseñanza de esta nueva teoría “científica”.

Podía haberse quedado en una simple (y cómica) anécdota. Pero las redes de Internet y el tirón de un divertido merchandising ayudaron a que el fenómeno se extendiera rápidamente por las universidades de EEUU. En pocas semanas, cientos de seguidores de este nuevo culto, el pastafarismo, hicieron lo mismo en sus respectivos centros.

Con la camiseta del monstruo como bandera, exigen que su teoría sobre el origen del universo obtenga el mismo rango que las teorías religiosas que dicen que Dios creó el mundo. A fin de cuentas –explican- ambas premisas están basadas en la fe.

Los pastafaris entran en el debate nacional

Es, en realidad, parte del debate que más voces está levantando en el sector educativo de EEUU. ¿Se debe enseñar en las escuelas la teoría del “diseño inteligente”, que niega el darwinismo y basa la vida humana en la existencia de Dios? Los conservadores quieren que se incluya en el currículum de las ciencias, pero la mayoría de los científicos opinan que eso sería impartir la religión como una ciencia, algo que no es.

Los orígenes de esta discusión se remontan a los años 80. Hasta entonces, muchas escuelas habían impartido en sus aulas únicamente la visión teocéntrica del origen del universo. Pero los tribunales federales empezaron a obligar a los colegios a que al menos dedicaran el mismo tiempo a las teorías evolucionistas. Algunos grupos religiosos se revelaron, pero lo cierto es que las tesis darwinistas terminaron por imponerse completamente.

En los años 80 los tribunales obligaron a impartir en las escuelas el evolucionismo de Darwin.

Ahora, al menos 20 estados federales discuten sobre la conveniencia de incluir el “diseño inteligente” en el temario de los colegios. Muchos grupos y asociaciones se han unido a la discusión, aunque ninguno lo ha hecho con tanto sarcasmo y buen humor como el grupo de los pastafaris.

Tal vez de ahí venga su tirón.

“Hay pruebas escritas”

“Permítanme que les recuerde que hay varias teorías alrededor del Diseño Inteligente. Entre ellas, la del Monstruo del Espagueti Volador (…) Fue él quien creó el universo. Ninguno de nosotros estuvo ahí para verlo, pero hay pruebas escritas sobre Su poder”.

Iglesia del Monstruo del Espagueti Volador

Iglesia del Monstruo del Espagueti Volador

Así arranca la carta que han enviado cientos de miembros de la “Iglesia del Monstruo Volador del Espagueti” a las instituciones educativas de varios estados federales. Sus firmantes exigen que se conceda igual rango que a las teorías creacionistas.

Dicen que los conservadores hablan de un ‘Creador’ y ellos de un ser compuesto de fideos. Que cambian los protagonistas, pero que los fundamentos son los mismos.

¿Y si el Creador estuviera compuesto por espaguetis?

Es, según han explicado, el Diseño Inteligente llevado al absurdo. “No tengo problemas con la religión. Lo que me molesta es que se venda la religión como una ciencia”, explica Bobby Henderson, el iniciador de este movimiento. “Está bien que enseñen el creacionismo en los colegios, pero no como parte de la asignatura de ciencias. La ciencia es el estudio de fenómenos naturales y observables”.

El debate sobre el Diseño Inteligente lleva tiempo sobre la mesa, pero en las últimas semanas ha cobrado especial fuerza, sobre todo desde que George Bush se mostrara partidario de que esta teoría –apoyada por los conservadores- llegue a las aulas estadounidenses.

La publicación de la “Teoría del Monstruo del Espagueti Volador” también ha contribuido a animar la discusión. En los foros, partidarios y detractores defienden sus tesis e incluso hacen apuestas:

“Doy 25.000 dólares a la persona que pueda probar empíricamente la teoría de la evolución”, reta una internauta a los autores del blog Boing Boing. La respuesta no se ha hecho esperar: “Nosotros daremos un millón de dólares a la persona que pueda probar empíricamente que Jesús no es el hijo del Monstruo del Espagueti Volador”.

Un “culto” que crece en Internet

Enseñar divirtiendo. La “Teoría del Monstruo del Espagueti Volador” ha seguido esta premisa, y lo cierto es que le ha funcionado. La imagen de ese bicho enmarañado se ha convertido en el icono de los opositores del Diseño Inteligente, un hecho al que notablemente han contribuido los productos de la colección de merchandising (el dibujo no era el fuerte del autor, pero con todo el diseño final ha calado).

Ahora, y con estas simpáticas anécdotas de fondo, habrá que esperar a la justicia de los Estados implicados, sobre la que recae la decisión de juzgar si la enseñanza del creacionismo en las escuelas estadounidenses es constitucional o no.

Y si al final el Diseño Inteligente recibe la denominación científica, quedará entonces por ver si la ironía del espagueti emprende su propia batalla legal para abrirse hueco entre las páginas de los libros de texto.

Detienen a una cabra que viajaba en un ciclomotor, aunque llevaba casco - 20minutos.es

http://www.20minutos.es/noticia/131903/0/ciclom...

clipped by ky1008 Jun 17, 2006

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EN SANTA CRUZ DE TENERIFE

Detienen a una cabra que viajaba en un ciclomotor, aunque llevaba casco

20minutos.es/Agencias. 16.06.2006 - 18:43h

La Policía Local de Santa Cruz de Tenerife dio el alto el pasado miércoles a un ciclomotor en el que viajaban tres ocupantes, según recoge Europa Press.

Uno de los tres viajeros resultó ser una cabra.

Continúan artículo y comentarios

Los hechos ocurrieron el miércoles, en la avenidad de Anaga, cuando los agentes detectaron que en un ciclomotor viajaban más ocupantes de los autorizados.

Al dar el alto al vehículo, los agentes confirmaron, además de que en el mismo viajaban tres ocupantes, que el del medio era una cabra parapetada bajo un casco de motorista.

Los ocupantes carecían de documentación y permiso de conducir
Además, los ocupantes del ciclomotor carecían de la documentación del vehículo, de permiso de conducción y del seguro obligatorio.
El ciclomotor ha sido retenido en los depósitos municipales y los agentes impondrán una denuncia por infracción grave a la Ley de Seguridad Vial.
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El forastero

http://elforastero.blogalia.com/historias/40871

clipped by ky1008 Jun 15, 2006

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Custom Sign Generator Page, Over 5,000 Image Generators (Personalized Flash Ecards & JPG Pictures) To Play With, Ajax Web 2.0 Applications

http://www.customsigngenerator.com/

clipped by ky1008 Jun 09, 2006

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OUR WEB 2.0 SITE/BLOG IMAGE/GRAPHICS GENERATORS (SAVE AS .JPG OR .PNG):

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Or Are You Just Glad To See Me?

http://www.automatedredemption.com/flavorcountr...

clipped by ky1008 May 25, 2006

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Can We Still Be Friendsters?

http://www.automatedredemption.com/flavorcountr...

clipped by ky1008 May 25, 2006

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SanDisk se rebela contra la hegemonía del iPod con una agresiva y polémica campaña

http://www.quesabesde.com/mp3/noticia/SanDisk-i...

clipped by ky1008 May 25, 2006

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BBC NEWS | Magazine | The Simpsons as philosophy

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/4995624.stm

clipped by ky1008 May 21, 2006

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The Simpsons as philosophy

The Simpsons is more than a funny cartoon, it reveals truths about human nature that rival the observations of great philosophers from Plato to Kant... while Homer sets his house on fire, says philosopher Julian Baggini.

With the likes of Douglas Coupland, George Walden and Stephen Hawking as fans, taking the Simpsons seriously is no longer outre but de rigeur.

It is, quite simply, one of the greatest cultural artefacts of our age. So great, in fact, that it not only reflects and plays with philosophical ideas, it actually does real philosophy, and does it well.

How can a comic cartoon do this? Precisely because it is a comic cartoon, the form best suited to illuminate our age.

To speak truthfully and insightfully today you must have a sense of the absurdity of human life and endeavour. Past attempts to construct grand and noble theories about human history and destiny have collapsed.

We now know we're just a bunch of naked apes trying to get on as best we can, usually messing things up, but somehow finding life can be sweet all the same. All delusions of a significance that we do not really have need to be stripped away, and nothing can do this better that the great deflater: comedy.

The satirical cartoon world is essentially a philosophical one because it reflects reality by abstracting it, distilling it and presenting it back to us, illuminating it more brightly than realist fiction can

The Simpsons does this brilliantly, especially when it comes to religion. It's not that the Simpsons is atheist propaganda; its main target is not belief in God or the supernatural, but the arrogance of particular organised religions that they, amazingly, know the will of the creator.

For example, in the episode Homer the Heretic, Homer gives up church and decides to follow God in his own way: by watching the TV, slobbing about and dancing in his underpants.

Throughout the episode he justifies himself in a number of ways.

"What's the big deal about going to some building every Sunday, I mean, isn't God everywhere?"
"Don't you think the almighty has better things to worry about than where one little guy spends one measly hour of his week?"
"And what if we've picked the wrong religion? Every week we're just making God madder and madder?"

Homer's protests do not merely allude to much subtler arguments that proper philosophers make. The basic points really are that simple, which is why they can be stated simply.

Philosophy's First Family

Of course, there is more that can and should be said about them, but when we make decisions about whether or not to follow one particular religion, the reasons that really matter to us are closer to the simple truths of the Simpsons than the complex mental machinations of academic philosophers of religion.

And that's true even for the philosophers, whose high-level arguments are virtuosi feats of reasoning, but are not the things that win hearts and minds. They are merely the lengthy guitar solos to Homer's crushing, compelling riffs.

However, being simple is not the same as being simplistic, which is one of the greatest crimes in the Simpsons' universe.

We can see this when Homer's house catches fire, in what could be seen as divine retribution for his apostasy.

But what actually led to the fire was not God's wrath but Homer's hubris and arrogance. Sitting on his sofa thinking smugly, "Boy, everyone is stupid except me," he falls asleep, dropping his cigar.

What really caused the fire was thus a slippage from the simple into the simplistic. Homer's mistake was to think that because the key points which inform his heresy are simple, that the debate is closed and he has nothing left to learn from others. But this is being simplistic, not keeping things simple.

Small dots, big picture

Revealing simple truths about simplistic falsehoods is not just a minor philosophical task, like doing the washing up at Descartes' Diner while the real geniuses cook up the main courses.

For when it comes to the relevance of philosophy to real life, all the commitments we make on the big issues are determined by considerations which are ultimately quite straightforward.

Pointillist paintings, such as this by Seurat, use thousands of tiny dots

A rich philosophical worldview is in this sense like a pointillist picture - one of those pieces of art in which a big image is made up of thousands of tiny dots (see Seurat image, right). Its building blocks are no more than simple dots, but the overall picture which builds up from this is much more complicated.

Yet we need reminding that the dots are just dots, and that errors are made more often not by those who fail to examine the dots carefully enough, but those who become fixated by the brilliance or defects of one or two and who fail to see how they fit into the big picture.

And the Simpsons certainly plays out on a broad canvas.

Any individual or group is shown to be ridiculous when only their pathetic and partial view of the world is taken to be everything. That's why no one escapes satire in programme, which is vital for its ultimately uplifting message: we're an absurd species but together we make for a wonderful world.

The Simpsons, like Monty Python, is an Anglo-Saxon comedic take on the existentialism which in France takes on a more tragic hue. Albert Camus' absurd is defied not by will, but mocking laughter.

Abstract themes

Another reason why cartoons are the best form in which to do philosophy is that they are non-realistic in the same way that philosophy is.

True heir to Plato, Simpsons creator Matt Groening

Philosophy needs to be real in the sense that it has to make sense of the world as it is, not as we imagine or want it to be. But philosophy deals with issues on a general level. It is concerned with a whole series of grand abstract nouns: truth, justice, the good, identity, consciousness, mind, meaning and so on.

Cartoons abstract from real life in much the same way philosophers do. Homer is not realistic in the way a film or novel character is, but he is recognisable as a kind of American Everyman. His reality is the reality of an abstraction from real life that captures its essence, not as a real particular human who we see ourselves reflected in.

The satirical cartoon world is essentially a philosophical one because to work it needs to reflect reality accurately by abstracting it, distilling it and then presenting it back to us, illuminating it more brightly than realist fiction can.

That's why it is no coincidence that the most insightful and philosophical cultural product of our time is a comic cartoon, and why its creator, Matt Groening, is the true heir of Plato, Aristotle and Kant.

Julian Baggini is talking about the philosophy of The Simpsons at The Watershed, Bristol as part of The Bristol Festival of Ideas at 1500 BST on Saturday 20 May.

Add your comments on this story, using the form below.

Homer has said many great things, one that comes to mind is :"no problem is so big that it can't be ignored" at first it seems irresponsible but then again life is too short and precious to keep worrying about things which we can not influence.
Ruan Hince, Budapest, Hungary

Years ago there was a book called 'The Parables of Peanuts' that analysed the Snoopy and Charlie Brown cartoons of the same name.
Mark P, Hertford

When the show first began, I said, "No way are my kids watching this." But then I began to see beyond Bart and Homer's comic stupidity to the good lessons underneath. Now the whole family (the kids are grown now) watches and discuss the satire and adaptations of movies, literature and current events.
Rickey Dodd, Birmingham, AL

Curiously, Julian's interpretation of Homer the Heretic is opposite to that the episode itself makes. The point is made (by Marge) that Homer has created these quips as excuses to disengage from faith, and has to be rescued from the fire by those still engaged enough to be willing to take action (Apu and Flanders). Far from being "simple philosophical truths", his quips are "tempting excuses for inaction". So perhaps the Simpsons' main gift is to be vague enough to read whatever you like into it.
William, Cambridge, UK

It's a lot to put on the shoulders of our local hero, Groening, to call him an ambassador of American culture, but every episode does seem to illustrate our country's ridiculous character in a way that no well-spoken diplomat can. I'm glad it's appreciated the world over...I'm proud every time I walk down Flanders St... and Lovejoy St... and Quimby St... and when I pass the Trojan Nuclear Power Plant.
Kara, Portland, Oregon, US

Can we not keep the Simpsons as a funny, irreverent comment on modern Western culture? Reducing it to an abstract science takes all the pleasure out of watching it.
Ben R, Reading

The Simpsons has had a very positive influence on my life since I begrudgingly started watching it about 10 years ago. Bound within Greoning's imaginary world is not one world view but a whole serious of competing, and as Mr Baggini says, partial world views. Homer is an idiot savant who shows us the folly of our own rigistic thinking. He is often stupid, and sometimes irritating, but no more so that those around him who claim a more sophisticated outlook, whether it is religious, moral, legal or intellectual. And in counter pointing Homer's antics with their antithesis, such as Lisa's dogged earnestness, he allows us to compare and contrast a range of opinions and attitudes. But enough... The Simpsons rules!
Pete, Leeds

As Homer once said, while watching cable TV in his house (cable TV he was watching illegally): "It's funny because it's true." That's why The Simpsons works.
Fran, Melbourne

Bravo! It is time that we recognised the message in the satire - I would personally liken this creation to the satirical works of Voltaire more than Kant, but if philosophy performs a function, it is in Marx's words, to change the world rather than just interpret it. Maybe it is time that society took a good hard look at itself in the mirror which seemingly banal creations like The Simpsons hold up to it.
Laura, Cambridge

I thought Pseuds' Corner was in Private Eye.
Mike Brown, Whitley Bay

Surely it follows that anything created by humans will have some essence of philosophy. I remember when the Teletubbies first came out people tried the same trick. Why we can't just say, "they're funny little yellow dudes that make me laugh". It can work on another level, but then if you analyse anything closely it can.
John, Grimsby

Why do philosophers say things we can't understand: "The Simpsons, like Monty Python, is an Anglo-Saxon comedic take on the existentialism which in France takes on a more tragic hue. Albert Camus' absurd is defied not by will, but mocking laughter." What's that all about? The Simpsons is great because we can all relate to it. End of.
Phelpsteruk, Warrington

Homer is the modern day Plato, except obese & he doesn't know he's a genius.
Sujon Miah, Burnley, UK

Book-A-Minute Classics

http://rinkworks.com/bookaminute/classics.shtml

clipped by ky1008 May 21, 2006

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The Ultra-Condensed Classic Books

Latest additions: 3/27/06

Beowulf by Anonymous.

The Confessions of St. Augustine, by St. Augustine.

The Collected Work of Jane Austen.

Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte.

Wuthering Heights by Emily Bronte.

If On a Winter's Night a Traveler by Italo Calvino.

Don Quixote by Cervantes.

The Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer.

The Cherry Orchard by Anton Chekhov.

Ivanov by Anton Chekhov.

The Rime of the Ancient Mariner by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

Heart of Darkness by Joseph Conrad.

Lord Jim by Joseph Conrad.

The Secret Sharer by Joseph Conrad.

The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane.

The Collected Work of E. E. Cummings.

Inferno, by Dante.

The Fortunes and Misfortunes of Moll Flanders Who Was Born In Newgate, And During a Life of Continu'd Variety For Threescore Years, Besides Her Childhood, Was Twelve Year a Whore, Five Times a Wife [Whereof Once To Her Own Brother], Twelve Year a Thief, Eight Year a Transported Felon In Virginia, At Last Grew Rich, Liv'd Honest, and Died a Penitent by Daniel Defoe.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens.

David Copperfield by Charles Dickens.

Great Expectations by Charles Dickens.

Little Dorrit by Charles Dickens.

A Tale of Two Cities by Charles Dickens.

Crime and Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky.

As I Lay Dying by William Faulkner.

Light In August by William Faulkner.

The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

The Yellow Wallpaper by Charlotte Perkins Gilman.

Lord of the Flies by William Golding.

Jude the Obscure by Thomas Hardy.

The Return of the Native by Thomas Hardy.

The Scarlet Letter by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne.

Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway.

The Old Man and the Sea by Ernest Hemingway.

The Snows of Kilimanjaro by Ernest Hemingway.

The Sun Also Rises by Ernest Hemingway.

The Odyssey by Homer.

Peer Gynt by Henrik Ibsen.

The Beast In the Jungle by Henry James.

Daisy Miller by Henry James.

Washington Park by Henry James.

Finnegans Wake by James Joyce.

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey.

Darkness At Noon by Arthur Koestler.

Sons and Lovers by D. H. Lawrence.

To Build a Fire by Jack London.

Bartleby the Scrivener by Herman Melville.

Billy Budd by Herman Melville.

Moby Dick by Herman Melville.

The Crucible by Arthur Miller.

Death of a Salesman by Arthur Miller.

Paradise Lost by John Milton.

Animal Farm by George Orwell.

The Collected Work of Edgar Allan Poe.

Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon.

The Catcher In the Rye by J. D. Salinger.

Franny and Zooey by J. D. Salinger.

Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

Julius Caesar by William Shakespeare.

A Midsummer Night's Dream by William Shakespeare.

Othello by William Shakespeare.

Richard III by William Shakespeare.

The Taming of the Shrew by William Shakespeare.

The Tempest by William Shakespeare.

Frankenstein by Mary Shelley.

The Jungle by Upton Sinclair.

The Oedipus Trilogy by Sophocles.

The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck.

Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck.

The Pearl by John Steinbeck.

The Lady or the Tiger by Frank R. Stockton.

Gulliver's Travels by Jonathan Swift.

Walden by Henry David Thoreau.

Anna Karenina by Leo Tolstoy.

War and Peace by Leo Tolstoy.

Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain.

Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton.

The Collected Work of Virginia Woolf.
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