Adherents.com has ranked the major religions of the world. What surprises me is that there are only around 500 thousand Scientologists, and that there are more - 600 thousand - Rastafarians in the world. Note that I said Rastafarians, not Pastafarians. Pastafarianism did not make the list, unfortunately.
Now I’m wondering how many Pastafarians there are in the world, and how we’d go about quantifying that. The FSM website has received well over 10 million unique visitors in the last two years. I’m guessing that the number of people vaguely familiar with FSM is in the millions, but that those who consider themselves Pastafarians number only in the tens of thousands. And of those people, I’m guessing that only some of them consider this a legit religion. For others it’s a joke, satire, entertainment, whatever.
I’m wondering how the mainstream religions count members. Do they count only those who truly follow the core beliefs, and disregard those who are there mainly for the social benefits? Or do they count everyone who’s signed up, or possibly those who pay dues?
Is FSM all that different than the other religions? How many Christians Truly Believe the Bible is the Infallible Word of God, and how many are members because they enjoy the social network and lifestyle that being Christian affords them? It seems to me that many Pastafarians enjoy this community, even if they don’t actually believe there is a Flying Spaghetti Monster controlling events around us at will. Of course, many of us do.
The Church of the FSM has no organized registration process - I’ve never liked the idea of it; it seemed too close to what the major religions do… tracking, asking for money - which I’m strongly against. But maybe it’s time for FSM to become more organized. What do you think? What do you want out of FSM?
First Post!
Hmm. I seem to remember Hinduism having more numbers than Christianity just a couple of years ago. Me wonders whether these data have come from the actual global population or from samples from Westernised society.
.
Last year I had three friends who had a heroin addiction. This year I have five. This means I’ve had a 66.6% increase in friends with heroin addictions in the past year. Sounds like two-thirds of my friends have become junkies.
.
St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Data Manipulation
P.S. People who boast about first posts have some serious thinking about their purpose in life to do. Wankers.
Actually, I have a sneaking suspicion that this data may pertain to the number of converts to the aforementioned religions in recent years. I’d go check it out, but I couldn’t be bothered. Any takers?
.
St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Misrepresentational Data
What do i want out of FSM?
.
I want Salvation through Pasta! Is there any other way?
Why do we need to count? Won’t the FSM manipulate our data anyway?
My first ever first post and i get flamed… St John, you have shown me the light.
I even had my username wrong… Holy Spaghetti!
Murmur: no probs mate. I try to help people in any way I can.
.
St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Charitable Causes
Maybe we should count off. I’ll start:
One!
Two!
Three
Four
It would be interesting to know how many of us there are, but I have to agree with St. John about statistics. They can be manipulated to fit the situation, and thus become meaningless.
.
What is more important to me about this discussion is that we seem to be on the cusp of taking some evolutionary leap, and this could go from being an amusing yet meaningful pastime into something more substantial. I’m so proud.
.
Really, if we could be smart about how to proceed from this point, we could become a giant thorn in the side of IDers. We need to keep our focus, however, which was/is to make a statement and have an impact on teaching Intelligent Design in public schools as part of science curricula.
.
By the way, being a part of this movement has become more than that for me. This, I believe, is what really makes some members of other religions (I won’t mention any names, but they know who they are.) very angry. I don’t necessarily want to make IDers angry. I, like them, am standing up for what I believe. One can argue that this isn’t a “real” religion, but the issues are very real to me.
To name just one large source of religions’ memberships - immigrants. In any country where there is an influx, churches provide instant community feeling and network, so these numbers, rather large at any time in the cycle, make up alot of “believers”. Churches, in the violent battles for global supremacy over other church’s sky gods, count everyone. Level of belief is almost irrelevant.
To quantify FSM accurately, what’s needed is a change to census forms. If you had access to the data, you’d probably find Pastafarian in a lot of boxes which are currently just marked “other”.
However, important to note, as earlier poster did, that the raison d’etre is to fight the good fight against the erosion of reason in education, and of course to wench, pillage, and keep temperatures down.
RAmen
I know I’m still being counted as a catholic in my home-town. I’ve been trying to get un-counted, but sofar without succes. They also keep sending me the parish magazine. And all that because my parents are catholics, therefore i must be one too…. NOT!
Oh: FIVE.
A friend sent me & the rest of the folks I worked with a crash course on how to spin data. Learn how to do it here:
http://tinyurl.com/37r6na
.
You’ll laugh your arse of at it & laugh your arse off forever more whenever your government gives their latest stats to justify their drug (and other) policies.
.
SaucyWench: Yeah I agree. This religion may seem like just a joke, but one should take it as a joke only in part. I see this religion becoming just as important to civilization’s grasp of reality as the Discordians, the Subgenii, and the Invisible Pink Unicornians. That may sound like I speak in jest, but these four (including FSM) religions serve to show the world the ridiculousness of dogmatic ideology.
.
Hail Eris!
All Hail Discordia!
And Hail FSM, Bob, & The IPU!!!
.
St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Dogmas Who Get Run Over By Karmas
I think ID’ers do need something to make them realize how rediculous they sound, using logic doesn’t seem to work so maybe using the same arguments they use, but with a different god, will. I personally think we SHOULD become more organized.
You can always go onto Facebook and do a search under religion. Within my network, there are 77 pastafarians. Maybe you could contact the Facebook staff and ask for a complete number.
http://hs.facebook.com/s.php?adv&k=10010&re=Pastafarian
It’s obviously in any church’s best interest to use “optimistic” statistics, to boost their perceived importance and that of their leaders. Notice the fine print at the bottom of the chart - “adds up to more than 100%”.
It’s also interesting that the nonreligious category notes that half the people in it are “theistic, but non-religious.” I wonder how many people in the other categories are “religious, but non-theistic.” I’ve known many people who would label themselves Catholic or Jewish or Episcopalian if you ask them, but don’t go to church - and they think of (the supposed) god as some sort of “higher power,” or “benevolence” or some other disembodied confused notion of the common good. Or something. FSM is so much more straighforward…