Posts by behemot

15

Italy: conventions baptisms stats

by behemot in

jw
friends

compare:.

rome, "divine victory" international convention august 1973:.

attendance 57.000; baptised 3366. rome, "teachers of god's word" international convention august 2001:.

behemot

Nelly136:

The stats mentioned above do not mirror the whole country situation, but refer only to one single convention. What I wanted to highlight is the lowering attendance/baptisms ratio.

OldHippie:

I agree the procedure you're suggesting would yield more precise data. However, I still think that "selecting one convention or one type of convention and their baptisms" does tell us something: granted, conventions with international visitors delegates may have a lower attendance/baptisms ratio compared to ordinary local conventions, but the three conventions selected above remaincomparable as they are all international. And, for that matter, the percentage of foreign visitors was certainly greater at the 1973 int'l convention - which had, nevertheless, the higher attendance/baptisms ratio - than in the most recent ones (given that at the time Italy had only some 36000 publishers). Of course, we shouldn't neglect the fact that those pre-1975 years were "special" ... people expected the end to come in a couple years time and would line up like crazy to get plunged in and thus be spared.

Behe

15

Italy: conventions baptisms stats

by behemot in

jw
friends

compare:.

rome, "divine victory" international convention august 1973:.

attendance 57.000; baptised 3366. rome, "teachers of god's word" international convention august 2001:.

behemot

Steve,

the attendance stats are not meaningful in themselves (in 1973 the Rome convention was the only one in the country; this year there were several conventions) ... more interesting and suggestive of a remarkable drop in new recruitments is the attendance/baptisms ratio:

in 1973: 3366/57000 (5,90%)

in 2001: 626/80000 (0,78%)

in 2009: 338/70000 (0,48%)

Behemot

15

Italy: conventions baptisms stats

by behemot in

jw
friends

compare:.

rome, "divine victory" international convention august 1973:.

attendance 57.000; baptised 3366. rome, "teachers of god's word" international convention august 2001:.

behemot

Compare:

Rome, "Divine Victory" International Convention August 1973:

attendance 57.000; baptised 3366

Rome, "Teachers of God's Word" International Convention August 2001:

attendance 80.000; baptised 626

Rome, "Keep on the Watch" International Convention August 2009:

attendance: 70.000; baptised 338

Behemot

9

The Chronic Dependence of Popular Religiosity upon Dysfunctional Psychosociological Conditions

by behemot in

jw
friends

see this essay on evolutionary psychology (july 2009 issue):.

http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/ep073984414.pdf.

abstract: better understanding the nature, origin and popularity of varying levels of popular religion versus secularism, and their impact upon socioeconomic conditions and vice versa, requires a cross national comparison of the competing factors in populations where opinions.

behemot

See this essay on Evolutionary Psychology (July 2009 issue):

http://www.epjournal.net/filestore/EP073984414.pdf

Abstract: Better understanding the nature, origin and popularity of varying levels of popular religion versus secularism, and their impact upon socioeconomic conditions and vice versa, requires a cross national comparison of the competing factors in populations where opinions
are freely chosen. Utilizing 25 indicators, the uniquely extensive Successful Societies Scale reveals that population diversity and immigration correlate weakly with 1st world socioeconomic conditions, and high levels of income disparity, popular religiosity as measured by differing levels of belief and activity, and rejection of evolutionary science correlate strongly negatively with improving conditions. The historically unprecedented socioeconomic security that results from low levels of progressive government policies appear to suppress popular religiosity and creationist opinion, conservative religious ideology apparently contributes to societal dysfunction, and religious prosociality and charity are less effective at
improving societal conditions than are secular government programs. The antagonistic relationship between a better socioeconomic conditions and intense popular faith may prevent the existence of nations that combine the two factors. The nonuniversality of strong religious devotion, and the ease with large populations abandon serious theism when conditions are sufficiently benign, refute hypotheses that religious belief and practice are the normal, deeply set human mental state, whether they are superficial or natural in nature. Instead popular religion is usually a superficial and flexible psychological mechanism for coping with the high levels of stress and anxiety produced by sufficiently dysfunctional social and especially
economic environments. Popular nontheism is a similarly casual response to superior conditions.

I know, "correlation does not imply causation", still ...

Behemot

18

Full Eclipes tommorow....in the most superstitious countries of India and Nepal!...Demon swallows sun!

by Witness 007 in

should scare the crap out of those religious folks still stuck in the 5th century......pregnant women are told to stay in-doors to prevent "defects" and hindu leaders predict "calamity" when the two great fighting demons "swallow the sun.".

it's 2010 soon people wake up!

and the ganges is not holy drinking water!.

behemot

The demon-swallowing-the-sun myth as aetiological "explanation" of solar eclypses is pretty common in ancient cultures.

The same motif is echoed, according to some scholars, in the Old Testament, i.e. in Job 3:8 (see Theodor H. GASTER, Myth, Legend and Custom in The Old Testament, New York, Harper & Row 1969, pp. 878, 888; idem, Thespis: Ritual, Myth and Drama in the Ancient Near East, New York, Harper Torch Books 1966, pp. 228-9; Luis I. J. STADELMAN, The Hebrew Conception of the World: A Philological and Literary Study, Rome, Pontifical Biblical Institute 1970, pp. 21-2).

Behemot

2

A. C. Grayling on "The Curse of Religion" (Guardian, July 1st)

by behemot in

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http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2009/jul/01/religion-euthanasia.

behemot.

behemot

Wobble,

don't know if the article appeared in the main paper (I don't live in England). I reached it through the Edge website (www.edge.org: lots of good stuff there).

As to A. C. Grayling, I like him too. Read a couple of his books (The Meaning of Things: Applying Philosophy to Life and The Heart of Things: Applying Philosophy to the 21st Century).

Behemot

2