i have enjoyed some fascinating debates on the forum.
i have found it interesting when" facts" have been presented to support a viewpoint, yet the " facts" have then been rejected.. what does this mean?.
well the " truth" is as a dub, i was often presented with " facts" that the organisation was wrong, yet as this information challenged my belief system i convinced myself the " facts" were either completely wrong or misinterpreted, .
It gets worse - showing someone facts that disprove their belief often has the effect of making their belief stronger. It is called the backfire effect: http://youarenotsosmart.com/2011/06/10/the-backfire-effect/
Some people claim to have had some success working around it (eg. Peter Boghossian), but it takes a lot of effort, and success is certainly not guaranteed!
it embarrassed me.
when i was young my folks made me wear one and i opened it up and took the paper out making it look like it fell out.
after my folks ask what happen i said i dont know.
a few years after i quit the meetings my mum needed her medical directive signed and witnessed and she asked if i'd do it.
i was surprised to say the least!.
i think she was just angling to include me and maybe find some lever to get me involved again.
born to be conned - new york times.
when people want to believe what they want to believe, david sullivan, a professional cult infiltrator, told the commonwealth club of california, a public affairs forum, in july 2010, they are very hard to dissuade.
and the reason it happens (and often happens to the most intelligent people) is that human nature is wired toward creating meaning out of meaninglessness..
hi people,.
i want as much data as possible on the effect of the internet on the time captured by the cult.. please answer the three following questions about yourself or about someone you know (for example, if your parents or grandparents were jw's and left).
1) were you raised as a jw, or did you convert?.
1) raised
2) 1992
3) 2010
Time in: 18 years
an updated list of documents relating to the charity commission investigation into watchtower of britain and jehovah's witnesses are available on jw leaks.. jw leaks.
original charity commission press release.
press release.
Announcement that the Charity commission will specifically look into the Anglican and Catholic churches in the UK.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34940723
Just to clarify - that link is not talking about the Charity Commission investigation. The link refers to the inquiry into child abuse commissioned by the government, which is completely separate to the CC investigation.
my middle brother called me a couple of hours ago.
our youngest brother, josh, who was 38, was found by his friends in his apartment.
he hung himself.
ok i'm just thinking out load here so to speak.
but let say in the year 2000 the wt says they have 1 million publishers and at the end of the year they say they had 300,000 people get baptized so in the beginning of the year 2001 they show 1,300,000 publishers.
then in this new year they state another 300,000 get baptized but with 50,000 deaths and 50,000 disfellowshippings they stated at the end of year 2001 a total of 1,500,000 total members.
Fraud in the numbers certain occurs at publisher and congregation level - publishers report time that they never did, and congregation secretaries insert 'estimated' reports for those who never actually turned in a report (I have seen both of these things occur, and I am quite confident it is very common). Once the numbers make it to the branch office though, does the trend continue? Possibly. But I highly doubt they count publishers twice if they get baptised. The baptism figure is not included in any of the other figures. Average pubs and peak pubs are the number of individuals who report time, regardless of whether they are baptised or not.
Assuming a trend of growth, the number baptised will lag behind the increase in number of publishers. That being the case, 2015-2016 should see a reduction in baptisms (due to the reduction in publisher growth for 2014/2015). If there is no drastic drop in baptisms in next year's figures, that could be due to people taking longer to get baptised after they start reporting time, or it could be due to an increase in the number of people leaving. There are also those who remain perpetual publishers or on/off publishers and never get baptised. So the best we can do is a very rough estimate as per the chart above (which is nevertheless, very interesting).
hi, i just joined the board and wanted to present myself.. i'm active, in fact very active in congregation activities serving "where the need is great" in a foreign language congregation somewhere in western europe.
as a young brother, i'm seen as an example as i'm doing all a good witness should do.. i had doubts years ago but i decided just to ignore them and move to another congregation to preach more.
that worked for some years but i'm now at the exact same point.
music and art have been a big part of my life since i was a little boy, and although i was never able to play a decent guitar, i can paint.
my art teacher from college said " i was the most imaginative and constructive pupil she had ever had.
" i loved that comment, because in translation i realised it meant i had to work harder than other more naturally talented students, but the effort was always worth it.
I also like to draw and play guitar. I don't know how I would cope without my guitar.
Here's me doing both:
