He stays in touch via WhatsApp with a handful of Mumbai-based members of the 200-strong Facebook group. These members gather offline sporadically to discuss video trailers they hope to launch in the future. But more frequently, as avid Pastafarians, they actively participate in online discussion forums where topics range from atheist humor to ridiculing news of religious zealots. "We share lots of fun pasta videos and activist achievements—like, if you manage get a driver's license with a colander on your head," he says. Some of the hoary rituals of Pastafarians include showing up in full pirate regalia and drinking lots of beer. Fridays are sacred. As Ravindran likes to say, “RAmen”.
But mostly, he thinks the movement is gradually losing its raison d'etre. "It wasn't supposed to become a cult. But it is degenerating into one, and it will suffer the same trappings of any cult if it does so. The 'us versus them', the religious bullying, the hazing, and rituals of initiation." His words echo a recent Atlantic article on FSM, which said, "Along the way, something funny has happened to a movement founded in large part to critique organized religion: It has gotten organized, and has taken on both the trappings and some of the social functions of a real religion."
lt's a lot of carbs, but l do love my noodles and beer.
Especially the beer.