ARE WATCHTOWER SOCIETY STATISTICS REALLY TRUSTWORTHY?

by TerryWalstrom 38 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Mephis

  The neutrality aspect is one where I'd trust little of what the WT self-reports. 1950 and Cold War Europe. Everyone had been an anti-Nazi or member of a resistance movement. The WT rides popular political trends just as well as everyone else. Look at how keenly they've hammered the Catholic church in the past, whilst Rutherford's political overtures get the whitewash treatment.

  Just to add some more suggested figures, the best I can come up with is of c.30,000 'witnesses' in Germany, c.10,000 were at one point or another imprisoned in what was a clear attempt to eradicate the religion. Of those c.10,000, c.2,000 went to camps where c.950 died. If one wants to make a comparison, one could look to the death rates of those sent to camps for homosexuality where around 50% died.
  

  Sources: Niermann, Die Durchsetzung politischer und politisierter Strafjustiz im Dritten Reich (Dusseldorf, 1995), 295 -305, Schmidt, 'Beabsichtige ich, die Todesstrafe zu beantragen', 105-107 and Wachsmann, Hitler's Prisons, 180-183
  
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  LAWHFol

  Great Research - I love your Methodology. Thank You
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  smiddy

  I have learnt my lesson , I would not trust anything the Watchtower organization says , period.

  smiddy
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  Half banana

  Having just read the thread may I introduce a thought that the obsession of the JW org with numbers has to do with a need for validation. It was brought to my attention by reading the works of anthropologist Weston La Barre. He suggested that the individual psychotic is not able to support his delusion on his own. If however he can get another individual to believe with him, that his mother was the Virgin Mary for example, then it is called a folie a deux. (delusion of two) Now how would it be if he got one hundred people or ten thousand to believe this psychosis? The large numbers alone would appear to validate the belief.

  Since the Watchtower ticks all the boxes for “cult” everything it does is an attempt to validate its authority as a religion and it naively uses anything respectable to hand, like numbers, which might give it more credibility.
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  Half banana

  To add in connection with the original question; from the perspective of the Watchtower, the accuracy of the numbers has only small relevance. It’s the power impression given by simply wielding them.
  
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  zeb

  One car with 4 brothers goes on a long drive to visit far flung farming properties. At the end of the day all 4 brothers put in their 'hours'. yet only 3 or 4 people were spoken too. But all 4 put in thier hours perhaps 5 to 6 hours each.. Now the reports are correct but statistically rubbish as they convey an incorrect picture.

  just a further example of wt stats.

  I am reminded of the expression that said ;

  "There are three types of lies. Lies, damned lies and statistics".
• 

  TheFadingAlbatros

  Maybe their statistics, although difficult to be checked, are trustworthy.

  But the true love inside this organization, although the terms "brothers" and "sisters" are used in every possible way, smells to much of an orchestrated manipulation to be trustworthy.

  
  
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  Doltologist

  WTS & Trustworthy in the same sentence?

  Yeh, right.
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  TerryWalstrom

  Having just read the thread may I introduce a thought that the obsession of the JW org with numbers has to do with a need for validation. It was brought to my attention by reading the works of anthropologist Weston La Barre. He suggested that the individual psychotic is not able to support his delusion on his own. If however he can get another individual to believe with him, that his mother was the Virgin Mary for example, then it is called a folie a deux. (delusion of two) Now how would it be if he got one hundred people or ten thousand to believe this psychosis? The large numbers alone would appear to validate the belief.

  Since the Watchtower ticks all the boxes for “cult” everything it does is an attempt to validate its authority as a religion and it naively uses anything respectable to hand, like numbers, which might give it more credibility.

  _________________________________

  It has been said that Charles Manson wanted to bring about HELTER SKELTER (his personal theory about Apocalypse. Blacks would rise up and attack whites and create anarchy; then Manson would step in as the Uber-Fuhrer and lead them) by creating abominable atrocity killings and attributing the killings to Black Power through co-opting their phrases. e.g "Kill the Pigs" etc.

  I've long held the belief that public prediction of Armageddon (with a precise date attached) was a very Manson-like effort to force Jehovah's hand. This would be the craved validation necessary to support the delusion FDS are really 'in the know."

  
  

  Today, however, a different strategy is under way.

  The GB is resorting to denial of previous culpability simply by CHANGING the entire belief structure.