by cedars 87 Replies latest watchtower beliefs
You can blame it all on them for recognizing Hawaii as a sovereign state.
Just for your information, Hawaii likely was listed separately because that is the Headquarters of the Pacific Region; they don't share the same headquarters as the mainland states. So it was a technical thing. I used to live in Hwaii so was more aware of them having a different Branch office than te rest of the U.S.
LS
Thanks for posting such an interesting topic and discussion. I think we've all benefited from reflecting on this.
My two-cents first would acknowledge that I do believe the net presents a threat to the WTS at some level. The best "hard" evidence for me that the internet is effectivce is that it forced the WTS itself to get their own official webpage. I considered that a credible victory for the net and the anti-JW movement. As had been mentioned, the WTS seems to take the threat serious so they might have noted their own impact.
But let's go a step further and analyze what is it about the information on the net that would affect opinions about the WTS. I believe its the active negative presence of XJWs, not necessarily some individual logically analyzing the claims against false teachings of JWs. If I were to generalize the main issues, the anti-blood transfusion issue is a major one, combined with the backlash from the shunning policy of the WTS. Coming in close behind is the link between the WTS ans Freemasonry with the very publicized photo of the seeing-eye pyramid at Russell's grave site. I would include as a major factor COJ's work with chronology and a firm body of evidence against 607 BCE for the fall of Jerusalem, with pointers to 587 BCE. Certainly this is well documented and a focus of internet discussion. But when you look at the body of JWs as a whole, it is coubtful but one or two in any given congregation could even explain or knows about the fall of Jerusalem in connection with 1914. Witnesses "know" less now and simply feel they don't have to know anything, thus don't have to think or reason on anything, since all they have to do is look up what the WTS teaches on the matter. Even so, the presence of two articles about the fall of Jerusalem, leaning heavily on the work of Rofl Furuli, clearly indicates the impact these discussions have had on the public view of the WTS.
But also, just in passing, atheism and anti-Biblical information in general I think has an impact. There are some strong propaganda elements against believing the Bible at all, over an beyond a focus of some anti-JW groups. So definitely the internet has an effect, in general. Even so, it is good and interesting to see the figures. Thanks, again, for all your work on this data.
LS
Hi Cedars,
I used your country categories, according to internet penetration.
Kindly see country-by-country-analysis for the first category: (It was done the same way for all 10 categories)
country (>90% internet) | publishers 2010 | population growth ratio (p.g.r.) | target figure for publ. 2011, based on p.g.r. | publishers 2011 (year book) | nominal growth rate, % (as in year book, but not rounded) | real growth rate, based on p.g.r. |
| Iceland | 339 | 0.69 % | 341 | 342 | 0.88 % | 0.19 % |
| Norway | 10,517 | 0.33 % | 10,552 | 10,740 | 2.12 % | 1.78 % |
| Sweden | 21,967 | 0.16 % | 22,002 | 22,052 | 0.39 % | 0.23 % |
| Greenland | 166 | 0.05 % | 166 | 155 | -6.63 % | -6.67 % |
| Totals | 32,989 | 33,061 | 33,289 | 0.91 % | 0.69 % |
Your statistics was much better than a lot of amateurish maths presented in such boards. But, of course, it is necessary to consider general population growth rate. For example: In Estonia, population growth rate is negative (minus 0.64 % in 2011), therefore the decrease of 0.57 % in publishers is still a real growth of plus 0.07 %! On the other side, as the above example of Nigeria has shown, an increase in publishers may prove to be a real loss, if total population has grown faster than the number of publishers.
In lower developed countries, less people have internet access. In the very same countries, the total population growth is higher than in high developed countries. Therefore, the effect of including population growth rate is much stronger for the countries with low internet penetration.
Thanks Weana! I'll certainly look into your calculations and let you know what I think once I've reflected on the information a little more. It's a little late where I am, so I think I'll need to give this more attention in the morning.
I appreciate your insight and perspective.
Cedars
I was surprised that the United States was ranked so low. It could be that internet usage penetration correlates with other goodies such as wealth, sense of community. Those small European countries outrank the major nations. I never studied statistics and regret it to this day. People who tend to use the Internet for research have enquiring minds. I also suspect if you need to go online to use government services, etc., you are more likely to stay online to research the Witnesses.
The very fact of being ordered not to do so would whet my apetite.
The link busybee provided is a very interesting read.
Its main point as i gleaned was not so much the effect of the internet on growth but rather on its corporate and doctrinal structure.
Like all organizations making a transition from old days to modern times they have always been influenced by whatever the dominant social and corporate upheavals of the time were, and now is the time of the internet.
The WT is reacting to the internet in everything it is doing. It is the internet that will change them further. Yes the internet is effecting numbers but no where near as important as it is effecting the corporation itself.
Thats what i got from it anyway...
Oz
oh and thanks for clearing up that bit about revising the graph...
Hi Aussie Oz, no problem - glad I was able to explain things. Yes, I also enjoyed reading the 2003 Liberty Magazine Article "The truth vs. The Truth" in that PDF link from busybee during a quiet moment earlier today. You're right, the Society certainly has been forced to switch strategies since the advent of the internet. It is still heavily dependent on demonizing the internet and thereby wielding control over what JWs think and read. I also found it very informative material for those like me who have awakened fairly recently. It more-or-less gave me a crash course in what has been going on these past few decades. I had never even heard of H2O, or the Bulgaria thing before. Very interesting stuff, and very well written.
Cedars
Hello Weana
Firstly, thanks again for taking an interest in this topic.
If I understand you correctly, you feel that population growth has a direct impact on average publisher growth. You therefore posit that the real factor influencing my internet penetration figures is the growth in population and not internet penetration per se.
I haven't checked all of your figures against those in the CIA Word Factbook, but assuming they are correct, I have run them in a graph alongside my own figures. Here is that graph:
As you can see, although there is a slight upwards growth trend for both sets of figures (more prominent in mine), there are some notable exceptions. In the group of countries with 29-20% internet penetration, the population growth percentage represents only a tiny fraction of the internet penetration. And for the final two categories (19 to 10% and 9 to zero %) there is a downwards trend with yours, but an upwards trend with mine. I therefore can't find a true correlation between your figures and mine that would suggest that population growth and NOT internet penetration is an influential factor in the growth of average publisher figures.
If I've missed anything obvious, please let me know.
Cedars
Sw
Sayswho says,
I CAN say without any figures like those shown here...the INTERNET IS what enabled me and mine to see the TRUTH ABOUT THE TRUTH...
Same here. No question about it, the information found on the internet was HUGE for me. It's no wonder the Society is trying so hard to keep Witnesses off of it.
