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!
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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.
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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.
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St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Data Manipulation
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P.S. People who boast about first posts have some serious thinking about their purpose in life to do. Wankers.
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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?
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St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Misrepresentational Data
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What do i want out of FSM?
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I want Salvation through Pasta! Is there any other way?
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Why do we need to count? Won’t the FSM manipulate our data anyway?
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My first ever first post and i get flamed… St John, you have shown me the light.
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I even had my username wrong… Holy Spaghetti!
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Murmur: no probs mate. I try to help people in any way I can.
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St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Charitable Causes
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Maybe we should count off. I’ll start:
One!
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Two!
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Three
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Four
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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.
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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
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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.
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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
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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.
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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.
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Hail Eris!
All Hail Discordia!
And Hail FSM, Bob, & The IPU!!!
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St John the Blasphemist
Saint of Dogmas Who Get Run Over By Karmas
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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.
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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
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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…
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We definately have too do something before religion completely overpowers all of our politicians.
Religion is what held us in the dark ages anyway
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Oh the 4\/\/50m3! #6! I 4m #6!
and someone really should do an official count. Just for bragging rights, ya know.
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Oh the 4\/\/50m3! #6! I 4m #6!
and someone really should do an official count. Just for bragging rights, ya know.
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Damnit. i am so very sorry about the double post. My bad.
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To Murmur… congratulations on first post! :)))
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What do I want out of FSM? I’ve already gotten so much, but I would really like to see the chat room come back! That was a great feature of this site that I know a lot of us miss!
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I’d also love it if Pastafarians could have a convention or in some way meet in person. That would be fun.
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@Wench Beth
Those on the disciples list could exchange Skype id’s (see signature of any o my recent emails to you for mine). That would give us a group chat without any need to type. I don’t have Skype on as standard btw.
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What the heck is skype? I sometimes don’t understand all this internet/technical stuff…
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Skype is a free program that lets you speak into a microphone, the computer translates the audio into a digital signal and sends it to someones computer halfway around the world. There is is translated back into audio and fed to the other computers speakers. So assuming you are already connected to the internet, you can talk to anyone for free. I do this occasionally with collegues with whom I’m collaborating in the US, works well enough. You can also set up a chat session with multiple people listening in on each other at the same time. This could be used for an actual *audio* chat among Pastafarians. It is limited in number though, as broadband connections and cpus can’t handle too many audio streams at the same time. But within the disciples group that limit is unlikely to be reached soon.
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@ RDPW – I saw your name change the other day and should’ve said something then. I like it!!! Very nice!!!
@ everyone – I am obsessive and addictive, I know this. I am already very addicted to FSM and don’t need a chat room to add to the heroin effect!!!!! Although I do miss my cute little avatar…and it was a blast!
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@ DPG – One more way in which we’d have trouble understanding Alchemist! :)))
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RDPW, all you need is to install Skype and register (free and easy) and let us know what your Skype id is. And your computer needs to have a microphone you can talk into. While not strictly necessary, it’s also good to have a headset (use e. g. your iPod ear buds for that). If you let the audio come out freely, the microphone may pick up on it and send it back to the other person, who then hears his own echo.
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@Rowdier Wench
“@ DPG – One more way in which we’d have trouble understanding Alchemist! :)))”
I don’t find him difficult to understand. Give the guy a sheep and he’s happy. What could be easier?
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@ DPG – Bahahahahahaha!! Ya, that is pretty easy to understand!!! Wahahaha!!
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To DPG… I’m all over that idea if anyone else is into it. Perhaps you could post the suggestion on Disciples, too?
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a register shuld be made on the websit thus alowing all Pastafarians to be counted and that would give us a rough estimate of our numbers.
this could be extendid to other things like where we are and how stongly we belive.
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a register shuld be made on the website thus alowing all Pastafarians to be counted and that would give us a rough estimate of our numbers.
this could be extendid to other things like where we are and how stongly we belive.
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@Wench Beth
Just did.
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Skype is great, we talk to families in Germany and Austria for free with it! It works like a phone. But yahoo messenger has this option, too. :)
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To DPG… you rock!
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Tom Day’s idea is a sound one. Perhaps there could be a link on the FSM front page that asks people to sign in, maybe just with name and country of origin?
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Chatting with Pastafarians…One more addiction for Rowdier Wench! Life is good… :)))
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Great idea! I will immediately be one of your official members.
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@St John the Blasphemist:
I think you might like this book. I read it for a math class years ago and loved it. http://www.amazon.com/How-Lie-Statistics-Darrell-Huff/dp/0393310728/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/103-8003980-4366237?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1179858664&sr=8-1
-Avatar of Reason
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Hi,
“But maybe it’s time for FSM to become more organized. What do you think? What do you want out of FSM?†– Henderob
This comes from the perspective of an atheist of 16 yrs who, other than noticing and ignoring some references to FSM over the last year or so, only really discovered the idea in recent days.
I think the biggest thing that the CotFSM has to offer is hope. It is the relief of discovering that not everyone out there (other than militant hard core atheists) thinks it’s reasonable to base one’s actions on beliefs having no base in reality – and most significantly, that it’s outrageous to act in ways that disrespect others’ rights on the basis of those beliefs. The beauty of it for me is that a far-fetched religion-parody such as yours is a wonderful way of non-confrontational attack using humour to negate the need to tiptoe around issues that at which people can take offence so easily. Many may still feel offended and mocked, but because our arguments aren’t specifically against their faith it can’t degenerate into the inevitable dead-end “You can’t prove there’s no god and I can’t prove there is so my argument is just as valid as yoursâ€. There’s a chance at least that smart use of the parody can avoid the barriers going up and could help people ‘see the light’!
And I think ‘smart use of the parody’ is the key here. I don’t see how congregation numbers can matter. It’s the total activity (in letters written, online debate outside of the circle, development of ideas etc) that counts – and that depends more on the ability and enthusiasm of a small number of intelligent, articulate people, rather than on total numbers. I’m not for a second suggesting exclusivity – in making anyone who doesn’t ‘get it’ in the same way as me unwelcome. An impression of numbers increases the power of the hope upon arrival (number 1 FSM value for me) and more activity and links etc. means more notice being taken and higher search engine rankings etc.
But in my opinion, two of the ideas Prophet Bobb has come up with in recent days would be taking His Church in the wrong direction. The first is the idea of recruiting sheep – or generally recruiting for the sake of recruiting (again, overemphasizing the importance of numbers). The other is the suggestion that a more structured Church is necessary – my take being through the forum, that a policy of identifying and prioritising campaigns and some consensus on strategy could yield more.
From the FAQ: “FSMism is intended to protest attempts to include religion in science curriculum. We are in no way against religion itself…†Surely to argue against ID is to put the case against creationism and therefore against religion? And argument against ID is prevalent here on this site even though, strictly speaking, it’s not what we’re about.
I see two possible directions ahead for the Church: one to step back from the ID debate to focus more on the original brief – to explicitly target the religion in education issue with as much impact as possible wherever it raises its ugly head, the other to utilize the potential power of the parody to undermine the power of religion in the world and as a consequence to reduce the odds of religionists annihilating the planet in the next 20 – 60 yrs. And, as I’m proposing in a forum post, I believe the Jerusalem problem may be the key there.
This needn’t necessarily boil down to an either/or situation. If the brief were expanded to permit a broader range of campaigns through consensus, we could each take our campaign/s of choice, see where the CotFSM is at then contribute to the debate about the direction and or acting – writing letters etc. utilizing our own creativity and imagination guided by the agreed direction as to the way forward.
As I said, I know it’s a bit cheeky for such a noob to stick his neck out so far but I hope it will not be taken the wrong way. In no way am I intending to undermine or diminish the significance of the extraordinary success of FSM so far. The questions were asked, I responded ïŠ
RAmen,
Barti Ddu
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@Noob
Good insight for a 16 year old. So good in fact that I’m suspicious if you really are just 16. But if you’re not, then I like a good part of your post anyway.
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To DPG… Noob said he was an atheist of 16 years, which I interpreted as meaning that he hasn’t believed in a god for 16 of the ?? years of his life. Am I correct, Noob? So I don’t think Noob is 16 years old!
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To Noob sticking his neck out… you make some very good points. Please post more! It’s good to hear new opinions and ideas :)
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@Noob
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“The beauty of it for me is that a far-fetched religion-parody such as yours is a wonderful way of non-confrontational attack using humour to negate the need to tiptoe around issues that at which people can take offence so easily.”
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Absolutely! You are very bright, Noob! (Most atheists are.)
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This, for me, is a BIG PART of the brilliance of Flying Spaghetti Monsterism. What I would like to know is:
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How many MILLIONS of people are going about their daily lives, feeling mucho-frustrated by having to keep silent, while Judeo-Christian-Islamists, or JCI’s, freely talk about their religious philosophies, on the street, in the workplace, at social events, etc., but NO ONE wants to say a word, for fear of offending someone?
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(That was a super-long sentence!)
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Worshipping a QUIVERING MASS OF WHEAT GLUTEN WILL SET YOU FREE!!!
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Once you come to know the TRUE NOODLE GLORY, you can express yourself, in a non-confrontational way!
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Thanks, Noob!
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You are a truth-seeker!!!
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Well, I wouldn’t say it’s totally non confrontational, it really depends on your personality. for example, no matter what I say to people who don’t share my views, it gets confrontational. But now I’m able to be happy while that’s going on instead of all arogant and demeaning toward them. hell of a lot more fun. ^_^
I still say everyone should meet at Gencon this year. Bobby could rent a booth. The 4\/\/50l\/ll\l355 would not be contained.
@Rowdier- you so do not need any more heroin. you’re already here like all the time.:)
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I’ve been an atheist for the greater part of two years but just recently told my parents (I’m still in high school)
They think it’s just a phase and are still making me do stuff with the church such as next week I’m supposed to create the sermon (I have no intention of doing it). Anyway the whole point of the story is that I am forced to go to church and know firsthand that the old church ladies are intimidating. Whenever they ask me to do something for the church I always think that that day will be the day that i tell them all off but when they look at me with their beady fanatical eyes, I am scared and make up some other excuse instead.
Maybe next time, FSM willing I will finally overcome them and emerge from the wilderness
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