Coded Logic

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Posts by Coded Logic

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  43

  The Modern Exodus: Perception or Reality?

  by Hadriel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm completely new at this however just in my joining this forum and of course interacting with others i can't help but notice what appears to be a significant exodus from the organization.. for those of you that have long been in this game have you seen this before?

  i'm really curious and we should refrain from the sensational, but is what we're seeing different than in years past?.

  it sure seems like so so many are waking and leaving.

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  Coded Logic

  It all depends on what a person means by "Mass Exodus".

  If you mean within a period of just a couple of months that millions of JWs will walk away from the religion - than I'm with Simon on this and I don't think it's likely to happen.

  But if by mass exodus you mean the churn becomes so high they start having negative growth - then I think they're already there. I believe they have been fudging the numbers for the past couple of years by moving the goal post of what they call a "publisher" and they won't be able to hide their reducing numbers for much longer.

  I also think it's important that we make predictions (not proclamations). Because over time it allows us to look at what we first thought vs. what's actually going on and produce more accurate models. My own prediction for a "mass exodus" is that in fifteen years there will be half the number of publishers. And I think such a prediction is worthy of the title "mass exodus". But that's just me. It seems like very few others on this forum are willing to make specific predictions about where the WT will be in the next ten to twenty years.
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  11

  Evolution is a Fact - Index for Numbers 1 - 30

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  #1 protein functional redundancycomparing the sequences of amino acids in ubiquitous proteins confirms the relationship between all living things.. #2 dna functional redundancycomparison of the dna that codes for the amino acids of ubiquitous proteins predicts the tree of life with an astonishing degree of accuracy.. #3 ervsendogenous retroviruses that infected our ancestors are found in the same place of the genome of our closest primate cousins.. #4 smelly geneshundreds of broken genes that used to code for olfactory receptors in our ancestors are still found in our genome.. #5 vitamin cwhy humans can no longer make their own vitamin c and what that tells us about our species' history.. #6 human chromosome 2our second biggest chromosome is made up of two of our ancestors' chromosomes stuck end-to-end.. #7 human egg yolk genehumans and our primate cousins have the genes for making vitellogenin and they are all broken in the same way.. #8 jumping genesbits of parasitic code called alu elements prove our common ancestry with primates.. #9 less chewing more thinkinga broken gene for a type of muscle fibre we no longer have tells a story about our evolutionary past.. #10 non-coding dnain common with many other species huge amounts of our genome originated as copying errors.. #11 tiktaalikan amazing fossil discovery illustrates the transition of life from sea to land.. #12 lenski's e.coli experimentan experiment with e.coli, now in it's third decade, demonstrates the power of natural selection.. #13 morris minor bonnetsevolution has to make do with building on existing designs as illustrated by the recurrent laryngeal nerve.. #14 joey goes to ozfossil evidence for the origins of marsupials found in antarctica exactly as predicted.. #15 robinson crusoethe biogeography of oceanic islands presents an impossible dilemma for creationism.. #16 aquatic mammalsan excellent sequence of fossils illustrates the evolutionary journey of whales from land to sea.. #17 belyaev's silver foxesa 50 year breeding programme demonstrates the amazing power of selection and the interconnected nature of genes.. #18 fish fingersthe evolution of limbs is mapped out in an amazing sequence of ancient fish fossils.. #19 goosebumpsa vestigial reflex bequeathed by our hairier ancestors.. #20 lucy in the sky...an exceptional fossil of a 3 million year old hominid.. #21 footprints in the sand...footprints at laetoli show our australopithecus afarensis ancestors were bipedal 3.6 million years ago.. #22 the hillocks of hiss...a vestigial feature if the human ear shared by 10% of the population demonstrates our evolutionary history.. #23 faunal succession...the consistent sequence of fossils found in the rocks can only be explained by evolution.. #24 the origin of your inner ear...how the bones that reptiles eat with became the bones that we hear with.. #25 deep time...scottish geologist andrew hutton discovered the proof of earth's great antiquity.. #26 colour vision...how gene duplication - new "information" -and mutation equipped us with trichromatic vision.. #27 monkeys, typewriters, shakespeare, 747s etc...evolution is a combination of random mutations and non-random selection.. #28 something darwin didn't say...a long term study of pigeons demonstrates how natural selection acts on a local population.. #29 use it or lose it...fossil genes reveal the history of modern species.. #30 your third eyelid...the remnants of a nictitating membrane reveals our evolutionary history..

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  Coded Logic

  Fantastic resource. Thanks for putting this together Crofty!
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  29

  Accounts of Jesus From Hostile Ancient Sources

  by Perry in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  from ancient accounts hostile to christinity, we can learn the following:.

  jesus was born and lived in palestine.

  he was born, supposedly, to a virgin and had an earthly father who was a carpenter.

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  Coded Logic

  Amazing how Perry always lights fires but never sticks around to support anything he says.
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  12

  The earth is flat...

  by rory-ks in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ...and the ship is sailing over the edge.. .

  such is the state of the watch tower society..

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  Coded Logic

  Hmm, I can't help but wonder how much more they can change or update their ideology. And would doing so actually save them?
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  36

  Estimating future growth or decline of Watchtower

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have seen a few posts here, in various guises, in relation to whether watchtower is in decline.

  plenty of people respond, but it is all fairly anecdotal, or "gut feel".

  some of it has been wishful thinking.. as of late 2015, watchtower's numbers suggest it is still growing marginally, but there are various anecdotes on this site of publishers typically being older, and younger ones disappearing.

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  Coded Logic

  I think you are absolutely correct to focus on the age profile of adherents as an indicator of decline. Increasing age of membership is a well studied phenomenon in the UK in relation to declining churches such as Methodists, Anglicans and Presbyterians. Peter Brierley has collected data on church attendance, including age profiles and lots of other details for decades.

  Good points SBF! I hadn't considered this.
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  36

  Estimating future growth or decline of Watchtower

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i have seen a few posts here, in various guises, in relation to whether watchtower is in decline.

  plenty of people respond, but it is all fairly anecdotal, or "gut feel".

  some of it has been wishful thinking.. as of late 2015, watchtower's numbers suggest it is still growing marginally, but there are various anecdotes on this site of publishers typically being older, and younger ones disappearing.

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  Coded Logic

  I'm not sure that "median age" will be particularly informative in estimating the potential decline of the WT. I think a much better source would be to look at how quickly the growth rate has declined over the past fifteen years and project that continued reduction into the future.

  http://www.jwfacts.com/watchtower/statistics.php

  It's also worth noting that the decline isn't just in the lower recruitment. It's also in the fact that what qualifies as a "publisher" has been downgraded to someone who reports as little as fifteen minutes per month. Many of the publishers are JWs purely for social reasons and have little understanding or interest in doctrinal matter - and even less interest in donating funds or performing parts.

  Pioneer hours have been reduced. Aux pioneer hours have been reduced. Length of talks have been reduced. Meetings have been reduced. Reading material has been reduced. Studies have been grossly simplified. Baptism is being encouraged younger and younger. Etc.

  The WT has been fudging the numbers for some time. And there's not much more they can do at this point to keep cooking the books. The WT already is in decline. It has been for almost a decade now. The real question is how much longer can they hide that fact?
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  17

  The Monsters the WTBTS Created

  by Coded Logic in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  growing up, the jws at the kingdom hall taught me that perfection is the only standard via which things can ever be measured.

  "well yeah modern medicine is great - but it's pointless because they can't save everyone.

  and they can't stop people from dying.

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  Coded Logic

  Nirvana Fallacy: Comparing a realistic solution with an idealized one, and dismissing or even discounting the realistic solution as a result of comparing to a “perfect world” or impossible standard. Ignoring the fact that improvements are often a good enough reason to implement even imperfect solutions.
  
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  83

  if you had the slightest of doubt about leaving leaving the watchtower org. go to to jwsurvey.org NOW!

  by nowwhat? in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  and we are suposed to trust these guys with our lives?

  !

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  Coded Logic

  If you look on the Telly website for the 2015 Silver award for Online Videos they have literally HUNDREDS of winners. Here's a link to a page that just has the winners beginning with A:

  https://www.tellyawards.com/winners/list/?event=16&category=3&award=S

  It looks like anyone can be a "winner" if you just pay them the $150 entry fee and then another $300 for the statue. So disgusting!
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  5

  Second Class Citizenship

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. current

  can you imagine if a person was refused services because they were black?

  or because they were christian?

  there would be nationwide outrage.

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  Coded Logic

  Can you imagine if a person was refused services because they were black? Or because they were Christian? There would be nationwide outrage. Every major network would be covering it and politicians would be lining up left and right to denounce such a business. But when it's the LGBT community it's doesn't even make the front page of the local paper.

  We've come a long way. But there is still a long way yet to go for LGBT equality. Here's just a few outrageous acts of discrimination over the past couple of months.

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  • In February 2015, a pediatrician in Michigan refused to treat a newborn because the child’s parents were lesbians. She said she had prayed before making her decision.
  • In February 2015, a gay man was refused funeral services for his husband and then when the funeral did take place, church members handed the family antigay pamphlets.
  • In January 2016, Republican State Senator in Nebraska introduced a bill that would allow adoption agencies to refuse to place children in the homes of qualified LGBT parents.
  • In March 2016, a California Barber refused to give a haircut to a Transgender Army Veteran because "it is a shame for a man to have long hair but if a woman has long hair, it's her glory and it speaks to being given to her as her covering."

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  Enough with the religious bullying and the social intolerance. Enough with people claiming to be acting in the name of God. The sooner organized religion dies the better.

  
  
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  375

  This thread is for proof that God exists

  by juandefiero in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  however, i haven't found any evidence to support that belief.. have you?

  if so please, show me the evidence that god exists, and i will believe along with you.. criteria:.

  (1) you must specify which god you are talking about;.

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  Coded Logic

  Dear God,

  Please show up and do something. Everyone is arguing all the time about who you are, what you want, and what you're going to do. Please provide some clarity. It would be nice too if you could get people to stop killing each other in your name and trespassing upon the rights of others. And it would be especially great if you could chime in on this thread and shut up all of us stupid non-believers.

  Sincerely,

  An Agnostic Atheist

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  PS: There was no milk in the house this morning and I didn't find this out until after I poured my bowl of cereal - please make sure this sort of travesty don't happen in the future ;)

  xoxo