Posts by adjusted knowledge

41

How Do You Feel About All The Time You Wasted Being. A Jehovah's Witness?

by minimus in

jw
friends

all that i can say is....what a shame!

adjusted knowledge

I became inactive around 17 and completely out by age 21. I've been able to pursue higher education and a comfortable lifestyle. My time as a JW was not too bad. My father was not a witness but enforced their rules. My mother wasn't "strong" in the faith. She was viewed and our family as spiritually weak. The congregation condescending attitude help make the exit much easier.

The only "regrets" I have is the loss friendships I've could of had, and some childhood activities. However overall it wasn't that bad. Some good times while a witness youth, and best of all no "brother" every tried to touch my peeter.

29

JW Records Request - United States

by cappytan in

jw
friends

has anyone in the united states ever successfully gotten their publisher records from the society?

adjusted knowledge

The congregation I was in kept them in a lock room behind the service counter. That was in the 90's. We had some dopey Elders, that same room was where the cleaning supplies were held. Even knew of an Elder that kept notes on peeps on his personal computer. He was eventually removed, but kinda of creepy.

59

'Anointeds' Do you know any and if so what are they like ?

by Introvert 2 in

would like to hear about any experiences anyone has had with the so called ' anointed ' .

adjusted knowledge

In the 80's we had one in our congregation. He was in his early 40's, and there were many in the congregation that doubted him. He is still claiming to be part of the anointed and is in his mid 70's.

I was good friends with his son, and with his family. He never held a job, but was a "pioneer". His wife worked full-time as an RN on third shift. She also did all the cleaning and cooking. He would sit in "his" chair most of the day either watching TV or on the computer. He eventually got a job in his late 50's for a few years. He also was an Elder for about two years or so, before being removed. He would blabber confidential information to his wife and family.

69

Average Age of this Forum?

by Garrett in

jw
friends

heyo!.

i'm quite interested in knowing the average age of those of us who use this forum.

i made a quick strawpoll that you can find at the following link: http://strawpoll.me/4340636 just pick an age and click "vote" if you wish to participate.. admins: if this breaks any rules, i apologize in advance..

adjusted knowledge

38 years old, but lurked here off and on for eight years

21

Interesting Pew Stats on JWs--Alarming Trends for the Borg

by Cadellin in

someone may have linked to this already, but the this interactive page in the pew religion study is pretty interesting, especially when you look at the trends for jw between 2007 and 2014. here's what it shows:.

jws are increasingly non-white.

in fact, the percentage of white jws has decreased from 2007 to 2014 by 12%, while hispanic jws have increased by 8%.

adjusted knowledge

Cadeliin, this is not Cognisonance work. This is research done by Pew Research. Though I'm not a Statistician, I've take four college level Statistic courses, and they have followed acceptable guidelines. In fact they did take a large sample, therefore the information is "more meaningful".

"The size of the national sample is unusually large for a religion survey. There are two main reasons for this. First, the large sample size makes it possible to estimate the religious composition of the U.S. with a high degree of precision. After taking into account the survey’s design effect (based on the sample design and the survey weights), the margin of error for results based on the full sample is +/- 0.6 percentage points.

Second, the large sample size makes it possible to describe the demographic characteristics of a wide variety of religious groups, including relatively small groups that cannot be analyzed using data from smaller surveys. With more than 35,000 respondents in total, the Religious Landscape Study includes interviews with roughly 350 people in religious groups that account for just 1% of the U.S. population, and with 100 or more people in religious groups that are as small as three-tenths of 1% of the overall population. For instance, the study includes interviews with 245 Jehovah’s Witnesses, a group that accounts for less than 1% of the U.S. population and is typically represented by only a few dozen respondents in smaller surveys."

21

Interesting Pew Stats on JWs--Alarming Trends for the Borg

by Cadellin in

someone may have linked to this already, but the this interactive page in the pew religion study is pretty interesting, especially when you look at the trends for jw between 2007 and 2014. here's what it shows:.

jws are increasingly non-white.

in fact, the percentage of white jws has decreased from 2007 to 2014 by 12%, while hispanic jws have increased by 8%.

adjusted knowledge

I didn't see this post, and started one. I will just copy and paste here.

The Pew survey I've been reading is quite lengthy, but filled with interesting information. It really explains a lot of the social issues. Impact of little education, donation issues, the issues of women finding marriage partners. It is a nice snap shot of the JW world.

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/
I thought back in the 90's when I was active that JW made up about 2% of the population. However they only make up .8%. I could be wrong but I thought it was more twenty years ago.
My main comment is that in the last 20 years the racial composition of the religion has dramatically changed to minorities. This could help explain the money shortage they claim. A huge rise in black and Hispanic membership which are traditionally lower income in American society, will impact donations. I know it varies from congregation to congregation but historically the two growing demographics (Blacks & Hispanics) are in the lower income bracket. This information is just for America, so when you factor in the growth in poor countries (Philippines, Mexico, Africa...) the bleed for the Watchtower could be larger now than it was 20 years ago.
I know it has been mentioned the average income level of JW is low, and this just compounds the issue.
"Differences in income across religious traditions largely mirror the differences in educational attainment. Jews and Hindus are among the groups most likely to report an annual household income of $100,000 or more (44% of Jews and 36% of Hindus). By contrast, large shares of members of the historically black Protestant tradition (53%), Jehovah’s Witnesses (48%) and people who say their religion is “nothing in particular” but that religion is at least somewhat important in their lives (47%) report household incomes of under $30,000 a year." - Pew Research. America's Changing Religious Landscape. May 12, 2015
No wonder "sisters" have problems finding marriage mates inside the Watchtower.
"Roughly two-thirds of Jehovah’s Witnesses are women" - Pew Research. May 12, 2015.
Wow, 66%? So a young JW woman has to compete for low income, non-educated, and perhaps much older men.
Hmm, If I was a JW pioneer, that would be my advertising message to guys..

14

2014 Pew Research on US Religion

by adjusted knowledge in

jw
friends

the pew survey i've been reading is quite lengthy, but filled with interesting information.

it really explains a lot of the social issues.

impact of little education, donation issues, the issues of women finding marriage partners.

adjusted knowledge

The Pew survey I've been reading is quite lengthy, but filled with interesting information. It really explains a lot of the social issues. Impact of little education, donation issues, the issues of women finding marriage partners. It is a nice snap shot of the JW world.

http://www.pewforum.org/2015/05/12/americas-changing-religious-landscape/

I thought back in the 90's when I was active that JW made up about 2% of the population. However they only make up .8%. I could be wrong but I thought it was more twenty years ago.

My main comment is that in the last 20 years the racial composition of the religion has dramatically changed to minorities. This could help explain the money shortage they claim. A huge rise in black and Hispanic membership which are traditionally lower income in American society, will impact donations. I know it varies from congregation to congregation but historically the two growing demographics (Blacks & Hispanics) are in the lower income bracket. This information is just for America, so when you factor in the growth in poor countries (Philippines, Mexico, Africa...) the bleed for the Watchtower could be larger now than it was 20 years ago.

I know it has been mentioned the average income level of JW is low, and this just compounds the issue.

"Differences in income across religious traditions largely mirror the differences in educational attainment. Jews and Hindus are among the groups most likely to report an annual household income of $100,000 or more (44% of Jews and 36% of Hindus). By contrast, large shares of members of the historically black Protestant tradition (53%), Jehovah’s Witnesses (48%) and people who say their religion is “nothing in particular” but that religion is at least somewhat important in their lives (47%) report household incomes of under $30,000 a year." - Pew Research. America's Changing Religious Landscape. May 12, 2015

No wonder "sisters" have problems finding marriage mates inside the Watchtower.

"Roughly two-thirds of Jehovah’s Witnesses are women" - Pew Research. May 12, 2015.

Wow, 66%? So a young JW woman has to compete for low income, non-educated, and perhaps much older men.

Hmm, If I was a JW pioneer, that would be my advertising message to guys..

9

New Life form discovered Lokiarchaeota - cross between eukaryotes and prokaryotes

by cantleave in

jw
friends

this discovery is a major step in our understanding the diversification of life.. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-32610177.

adjusted knowledge

I will have to read latter. It will be interesting if they talk about the subject of how eukaryote cells gained organelles. One theory that I've read is prokaryote cells devouring other life forms that eventually served as organelles. The mitochondria was believed to be a prokaryotic cell at one time.

7

Waking up from the JW dream... The biggest loss for me, was the idea of justice.

by adjusted knowledge in

jw
friends

being a jw you're able to ignore bad things to some level.

it's the lazy way of saying, "jehovah will deal with it soon".

but when i loss my faith, the biggest gut wrench was the idea that true justice was just an illusion.

adjusted knowledge

Being a JW you're able to ignore bad things to some level. It's the lazy way of saying, "Jehovah will deal with it soon". But when I loss my faith, the biggest gut wrench was the idea that true justice was just an illusion. That bad people in this world, and many of them, never face justice for their bad actions. I think of the man who held those three young women captive for a decade. I wonder in our world how many sick men and women are out there like him. They never have to answer to their evilness.

As a witness, I never worried too much. I was glad a just God would set all things right.The tsunami that killed hundreds of thousands of people is another mind blowing event that sadden me as a non-believer. It just showed how meaningless really we are. No more important than microbes in a Petri dish. I was told as a witness that God would intervene if the world was to face utter destruction (for example stopping a nuclear war, or diverting a planetary meteor). Anyone else was ever taught that as a JW? Yes, the religion made it easy at time not worry about such things, but focus on the really important stuff like getting those 10 hours in field service.

Facing reality is a hard thing to do. Another good reason religion and the Watchtower will be around for a long long time.

21

All Seeing Eye on WBTS Video!

by Alan Forbes in

i was on the jw.org website today and decided to watch a video entitled 'respect jehovah's authority'.

to my surprise approximately 3mins 25secs into the video, as the opening title began to fade, a symbol of the all seeing eye (eye of horus) appeared on the screen.

the scene was not set in egypt, but in a hebrew tent in the wilderness where praise was being sung to jehovah!!

adjusted knowledge

Alan,

I season my speech with lots of salt; you're a buffoon. I hope that wasn't too salty for your taste.