Wikipedia - has some very interesting reading about the background to the FSM. Below are a few paragraphs from the Wikpedia site.

"The Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster was first publicly exposed in January 2005[4] when Bobby Henderson, then a 25-year-old Oregon State University physics graduate, sent an open letter regarding the Flying Spaghetti Monster to the Kansas State Board of Education.[3][5][6] The letter was sent prior to the Kansas evolution hearings as an argument against the teaching of intelligent design in biology classes.[3] Henderson, describing himself as a "concerned citizen" representing ten million others, stated that both his theory and intelligent design had equal validity.[3] In his letter, he noted,

I think we can all look forward to the time when these three theories are given equal time in our science classrooms across the country, and eventually the world; One third time for Intelligent Design, one third time for Flying Spaghetti Monsterism, and one third time for logical conjecture based on overwhelming observable evidence.
—Bobby Henderson[7]

"As public awareness grew, the mainstream media picked up on the phenomenon. The Flying Spaghetti Monster became a symbol for the case against intelligent design in public education.[3][19][20] The open letter was printed in many large newspapers, including the New York Times, Washington Post, and Chicago Sun Times,[16] and received "worldwide press attention" according to one journalist.[21] Henderson himself was surprised by its success, stating that he "wrote the letter for [his] own amusement as much as anything".[2]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flying_Spaghetti_Monster