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?
Any money asked for/raised on this site should go directly to the purchase of a pirate ship. A real one. A Zodiac wouldn’t hold us all (unless we want to be really, really, really, really, really, REALLY cozy ;)
WE NEED A PIRATE SHIP!!!!!!
Virgin Post
I would love to be counted. Perhaps we could join together for a mass anointing with pasta sauce. (Oh baby, that sounds dirty. I like it.)
I would travel a great distance to attend a Congregational Conference Gospel Tent Meeting. I would pay (a small amount of) money to attend. And I would pay (a small amount of) money to camp nearby.
I celebrated my first Holiday last year starting in late November and ending this year in early January. I made a spaghetti house instead of a gingerbread house - I could send pictures. I presumed I would be counted when I bought all those t-shirts and mugs. (Just a short aside - During Holiday I have told people I was converting that heaven is equal opportunity. I’ve told them that the strippers are both male and female. Will I go to hell?)
I hereby request to be counted as number 73. We could change out posting names to be our name first and then our number. That would make me Grok the Noodle 73.
I look forward to hearing more.
RAmen
@Grok the Noodle
Welcome to the CoFSM. No, you won’t go to hell for telling the truth about equal opportunities in Paradis.
Meeting up with others depends on where you live I guess. But others should never be that far away, we’re confirmed to have a presence in 30 countries. Search some of the recent threads and you’ll find the list (look for ‘Norway’ the latest addition).
@ Grok the Noodle - Welcome and RAmen! I hope you stay and play!
Welcome No79!
We live at 89 - coincidence? I think not!!!
There had damn well better be both lots of strippers and lots of different beers, or I am complaining to the management!!!
Can I be Wench Beth 13, pleeez? That’s my lucky number.
I would take 42, but L’TUAE will want that one ;)
In that case I will have 439587672047 - thanks!
I’d take 314159 but I bet Pixel Pop wants that one!
Can I have 7 of 9 please?
@ Ûž - Wahahahahaha!!! My hubby has made the same request! :)))
Oh, and I’m not a number! I’m a free man!
I think Alchemist will be 420.
Hee hee hee hee hee!!!!!!!!!!
To Ûž… was that quote from “The Prisoner”, by any chance?
Actually, I’ll have 69!
Wow this is getting fun! :)))
Yes Beth. I love “The Prisoner”.
.
I was working on a project in Westminster once and found the underground car park the Prisoner drives in to in his Caterham 7 in the title sequence.
.
I thought that was soooo cool.
can we use imaginary numbers
like Thesorgo e
@Professor B♥♥ty May 25th, 2007 at 1:38 pm
Booty, We’re picking numbers that we’d like to be known by.
Can you pay attention please, we can get back to your subject later.
On the is-this-for-real thread Israel was just added as having a Pastafarian presence. So now we are 31 countries:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Britain
Canada
China
Denmark
Finland
France
Germany
Guatemala
Hungary
Iceland
India
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Norway
Poland
Russia
South Africa
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
United Arab Emirates
USA
Israel?! That’s probably the last place I expected a Pastafarian to be.
Only 162 more countries to go!