If by “decimate” you mean reduce by 10%, then I agree with you. If, on the other hand, you mean that the internet will bring an end to the Watchtower, then I think you overestimate the internet’s ability.
Yes it’s true that the internet has the ability to cripple their ability to recruit new converts, but how many people across the globe have access to the high-tech devices you describe? The underdeveloped world is a fertile breeding ground for Watchower-like religious movements. The immigrant population within the United States is supplying the Watchtower with vast numbers of converts-in-the-making. These people don’t have access to or don’t know how to utilize the internet in the ways that you describe.
Also, what about the people who are already within the Watchtower? Many of them take the Watchtower’s admonitions against the internet quite seriously and don’t allow themselves to view “apostate” material. Don’t forget the stupidity of the human spirit that allows people to deceive themselves in order to avoid confronting uncomfortable truths.
I wish the internet really could bring the downfall of the Watchtower, but I simply don’t see it happening anytime soon.
I enjoy your website tremendously, by the way. Keep up the good work.
neverendingjourney
JoinedPosts by neverendingjourney
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Google, Apple & how Next Gen INTERNET will DECIMATE the Watchtower Society
by jwfacts inthink the early 80's.
one of the most important events in watchtower history was the release of crisis of conscience by former governing body member f. franz.
slow distribution of this "apostate" book lead to a minor loss of members.
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neverendingjourney
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Twilight Zone "On Thursday We Leave For Home" Parallels
by neverendingjourney inim a fan of the original twilight zone television series.
i recently saw an episode entitled on thursday we leave for home, and it dawned on me that it had some interesting parallels regarding why a lot of witnesses never leave the religion even when it starts to become clear that its not the truth.
of course, these shows presented short moral lessons and different people can find different morals in them, but i digress.
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neverendingjourney
Yet the closer we get to the centennial year of Christ's invisible presence, the less appealing paradise is beginning to sound.
There wouldn't be enough Zoloft on the planet for all of us. Seriously, though, after the luster of being a brand-new, idealistic Witness wore off, life as a JW was hell. I was constantly worrying about my personal failures and not being able to live up to Watchtower standards. The constant hypocrisy and not being able to speak out about it just got to me. It's no wonder that half the congregation seemed depressed. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to live forever, but life in a JW paradise world would not be very appealing at all.
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Twilight Zone "On Thursday We Leave For Home" Parallels
by neverendingjourney inim a fan of the original twilight zone television series.
i recently saw an episode entitled on thursday we leave for home, and it dawned on me that it had some interesting parallels regarding why a lot of witnesses never leave the religion even when it starts to become clear that its not the truth.
of course, these shows presented short moral lessons and different people can find different morals in them, but i digress.
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neverendingjourney
Thanks for the comments, everyone.
It's a real big ego boost to them
to "help" the members by chastising or reproving them. Not many window washers get to
do that.Isn't that the truth? I remember a situation that popped up in our congregation years ago. There was a "fringe" JW family who was full of problems. The mother was the only one who showed up to the meetings with any regularity. They had a bunch of kids, maybe six or seven of them. At the time the kids' ages ranged from adolescence to mid/late 20s. Their youngest was a 14 or 15 year old boy who did not seem to be all there, if you know what I mean. He clearly had mental problems of some sort. He was antisocial and constantly got in trouble in school. He was the type of kid that just gave you a bad vibe when he was around.
At the same time there was the overzealous elder in our congregation who seemingly got involved in every problem that arose. The elder was in his late 20s, but he had a family of his own by then. To make a long story short, rumors began to surface that this kid was demon-possessed, rumors which this elder later confirmed to me. The elder told me to be careful around that kid because he and another elder had in fact confirmed that the kid was possessed. He said they went to talk to the family and the kid told them he heard voices telling him to kill his mother.
The sad thing is that this kid was most likely suffering from serious mental problems, probably schizophrenia, and here were two construction workers (one of whom was barely literate) giving the family counsel on how to deal with the situation! For the life of me, I can't understand how these people didn't rush the kid out immediately to the nearest hospital for treatment, but of course, what could be better to treat his problem than the Bible! That’s the kind of power and influence that keeps many JWs around. They won’t ever be in that kind of position of authority anywhere else.
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Ex astronaut says Aliens exist but NASA covers it up.
by misanthropic ini apologize if this has already been posted- thought it was interesting and makes me wonder.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2453700/aliens-exist,-but-nasa-covers-them-up-says-astronaut.html.
dr edgar mitchell, said he was aware of several ufo visits during his career, but each one had been covered up.. .
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neverendingjourney
the chances of them evolving to a point where we could communicate at the same time in the history of the universe and in close enough proximity to transfer information makes it nearly impossible that we will ever encounter them.
Exactly. We know that the statistical probability of simple life developing is extremely remote. The probability of intelligent life developing from such simple organisms is extremely remote as well. It's not a common occurrence. Let's keep in mind that there are no signs of life or of previous life within our own solar system. We've had antennas scanning our vast universe for transmissions from distant planets for years now, but they haven't picked up anything.
Let's also not forget that the universe is some 13 billion years old. If life on Earth is any indication, most species last a few million years and then die out. In the 4 1/2 billion years of our planet's existence, intelligent life capable of sending communications to other planets has existed for about a century. Seeing as how we now have the capability of killing every single person alive through a nuclear holocaust, who knows how much longer we'll be around. Therefore, despite the fact that there are probably millions upon millions of other planets in our universe, the chance that intelligent life has evolved there and exists concurrently with intelligent life on this planet is not as much of a certainty as UFO enthusiasts make it seem.
There are also the physics problems I discussed in my previous post. In order for aliens to arrive to our planet, vessels that fly at speeds which are impossible under the laws of physics would be required. So, while I don't foreclose the possibility that aliens might have visited our planet, the idea of that happening now and that it is simultaneously being covered up by our government is simply too far-fetched for me to buy into.
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Practising 'Goodness' - from the District Convention
by passwordprotected inas heard at the district convention.
9 part symposium on how to display the fruitages of the spirit.
goodness.
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neverendingjourney
did we really fall for that birthday explanation as kids?
No. As a kid I fell for it because that's what my momma told me and if that's what she said then it must be true. As a young adolescent, I didn't care whether b-days were good or bad. When I, myself, bought into JWism when I was 15, I had the JW mentality firmly set in place. I started with the conclusion and worked my way backwards to find the evidence that supported it. Birthdays were bad and the fact that John the Baptist was beheaded during one was the proof. BOOM! There you go. Enough said. I wasn't interested in seeing whether the doctrine really made sense or not. The Watchtower said it was so and whatever they offered up as proof was good enough for me. There were a lot of things that I never really fell for, but there was enough about the JWs that I did believe in to where I just accepted everything else as well because of the where-else-can-we-go mentality.
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Ex astronaut says Aliens exist but NASA covers it up.
by misanthropic ini apologize if this has already been posted- thought it was interesting and makes me wonder.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2453700/aliens-exist,-but-nasa-covers-them-up-says-astronaut.html.
dr edgar mitchell, said he was aware of several ufo visits during his career, but each one had been covered up.. .
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neverendingjourney
The problem with alien visitation stories is that Einstein's laws of physics do not allow for an object to move faster than the speed of light. Infinite energy would be required to propel an object to the speed of light. It just simply isn't possible unless a civilization somehow learns how to defy the laws of physics. Even if we could travel the speed of light, it would take us over four years to reach the nearest star, 100,000 years to travel the length of our own Milky Way galaxy, and 2.5 million years to reach the nearest galaxy. It just simply isn't possible.
Now, of course, people will say that alien civilizations would have gotten past these problems and so forth, but if those civilizations have reached that level of advancement, why haven't we heard from them yet? It just doesn't make sense. For the record, I think that there could be intelligent life our there in the universe, but I doubt the laws of physics would allow for us to communicate with, much less visit with, intelligent life outside of our own solar system.
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Twilight Zone "On Thursday We Leave For Home" Parallels
by neverendingjourney inim a fan of the original twilight zone television series.
i recently saw an episode entitled on thursday we leave for home, and it dawned on me that it had some interesting parallels regarding why a lot of witnesses never leave the religion even when it starts to become clear that its not the truth.
of course, these shows presented short moral lessons and different people can find different morals in them, but i digress.
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neverendingjourney
I’m a fan of the original Twilight Zone television series. I recently saw an episode entitled “On Thursday we Leave for Home,” and it dawned on me that it had some interesting parallels regarding why a lot of Witnesses never leave the religion even when it starts to become clear that it’s not “the truth.” Of course, these shows presented short moral lessons and different people can find different morals in them, but I digress.
In short, the episode deals with a space colony on a far away planet. The people have been stranded there for 30 years. The planet’s heat is oppressive and resources are scarce. The leader of the group is a man whom the colonists refer to as “Captain” Banteen. He rules over them with an iron fist keeping discipline when the residents have all but given up hope. He keeps their spirits up by telling them stories of Earth. All of the young colonists have never been on Earth and many of the middle-aged colonists barely remember it. The hope of being rescued and living a normal life on Earth provides the colonists the hope they need to continue living and Banteen insures that the residents don’t get out of line by his strict discipline.
Finally a ship arrives from Earth to rescue them. The colonists are elated and the ship is set to leave for Earth on Thursday. Slowly we begin to see Benteen’s demeanor change. He realizes that there is no more reason for the colonists to follow his every instruction. A game of baseball breaks out during the day and Banteen orders the colonists back to their homes, purportedly because he’s concerned for their health (the temperature was said to be well above 100 degrees). The rescuers are notably disturbed by Banteen’s antics, but they let him get away with it. Banteen then calls a meeting telling the colonists that they are not prepared to live by themselves on Earth and that upon arrival things will remain as is. They will have their own community with Banteen as their leader. His description of Earth noticeably begins to change and he describes it as a world full of dangers. The colonists, however, do not go along with his plan.
On Thursday, their departure date, he tells the colonists that they are not to board the ship because they are better off on the colony than on Earth, but the colonists refuse to go along with his orders. Finally, despite the rescuers pleas, Banteen refuses to get on board. Banteen is seen walking around as if he’s still in charge of the colony and his people are still there. He gets on top of a rock, as was his custom, to hold a meeting—but there is nobody there to listen to him. The thought of losing his power, his very purpose for existence, despite the fact that his living conditions would improve dramatically, was too much for him to bear.
From my experience, many Witnesses suffer from this same Banteen sickness. They get stuck in a routine believing they are important people, partakers in the greatest movement in world history. They fancy themselves modern-day Noahs taking the lead in a worldwide, lifesaving preaching work. They look at themselves as special people, one of only a very small, select group of people who will make it alive out of Armageddon, but when the facts and inconsistencies begin to pile up and they’re forced to realize that their conception themselves and their religion is false, many simply do not have it in them to give up their fantasy. They are too used to the routine, to the sense of power and entitlement that comes along with being a Witness. They’d rather lead a meager life of obedience as long as they are able to continue with their delusions of being important people. This is especially true with respect to elders and other “higher ups” who actually have direct control over large groups of people. The thought of giving up being an influential person with control over dozens, if not hundreds, of people is too high a price for them to pay. They’d rather continue in their routine than face the facts, even though facing the facts would liberate them from the Watchtower’s oppression and allow them to lead a better life.
Anyone else out there a fan of the show?
Here are the links to the episode in case anyone is interested. It’s one of a handful of one-hour episodes that aired. These are YouTube links, so who knows how long they’ll be functional before they’re removed.*Edit [I removed the links. The video can be found on YouTube, but for some reason the links as posted don't work]
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Image all important to WT
by Outaservice ini found it interesting in the july 1st watchtower (the public's edition) that in their introduction to the article 'coping with grief' they feature a scripture from gen. 37:35 and under it the caption, 'the holy bible-new international version'.. are they trying to show how reasonable they are to the public by refering to the niv instead of their biased new world translation?
also, in that same magazine in an article on 'tel arad', a place by the way, i have visited, it again mentions that......" the findings at tel arad cover a long period of bible history, ranging from the days of the judges of israel down to the babylonian invasion of judah in 607 b.c.e.
" the still cling to that date 607 in view of overwhelming evidence that they are 20 years off.
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neverendingjourney
Do you watch the History Channel? If so, you could say you saw a show on there that said the temple in Jerusalem had been destroyed on a different date and you decided to look into it. I watch a lot of THC and I've heard the topic of Jerusalem's invasion come up in one of their shows recently with 586 listed as the official date for it.
If I'm not mistaken, the Aid volume had some 607 material under "chronology," which was subsequently taken out in the Insight volumes. Maybe you can use that discrepency to get her attention. Just a thought.
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Image all important to WT
by Outaservice ini found it interesting in the july 1st watchtower (the public's edition) that in their introduction to the article 'coping with grief' they feature a scripture from gen. 37:35 and under it the caption, 'the holy bible-new international version'.. are they trying to show how reasonable they are to the public by refering to the niv instead of their biased new world translation?
also, in that same magazine in an article on 'tel arad', a place by the way, i have visited, it again mentions that......" the findings at tel arad cover a long period of bible history, ranging from the days of the judges of israel down to the babylonian invasion of judah in 607 b.c.e.
" the still cling to that date 607 in view of overwhelming evidence that they are 20 years off.
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neverendingjourney
Most Witnesses have no idea that 607 B.C. is the exclusive property of the WTBTS. Most take it for granted that the date is correct. After all, how many of us researched every date mentioned in the WT's publications to make sure they were historically accurate? Plus, the destruction of Jerusalem by the Babylonians lacks the historical significance to make it into the curriculum of most high school history courses. Hell, I had a bachelor's degree with a minor in history and I didn't know the date was incorrect until I allowed myself to view anti-JW websites and reading material.
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Name something that JWs believe in that isn't in the Bible
by Awakened at Gilead inmy favorites are:.
"paradise earth": not in the bible.
"great crowd" of "other sheep" - two unrelated texts... put them together, and voila!, you just changed the destiny of millions!.
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neverendingjourney
This extra-Biblical rule actually makes sense. Nonetheless, it is nowhere to be found in the Bible: "Known child abusers" may not hold any positions of responsibility in the congregation.