that's a stupid question isn't it?
all apostates "know" that the era of witness growth is well and truly over.
the internet has revealed the man behind the watchtower curtain and people are leaving in droves, especially in the western world!
AnnOMally, he told me that too and I believed him. But compare:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/106735/1.ashx
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/6/73700/1182032/post.ashx#1182032
It seems he conceals his past affiliation in order to maintain access to active Witnesses, and to create the appearance of objective distance within the academic community.
Slim
that's a stupid question isn't it?
all apostates "know" that the era of witness growth is well and truly over.
the internet has revealed the man behind the watchtower curtain and people are leaving in droves, especially in the western world!
That's a stupid question isn't it? All apostates "know" that the era of Witness growth is well and truly over. The Internet has revealed the man behind the Watchtower curtain and people are leaving in droves, especially in the Western world! It is only a matter of time before big decreases are seen in developed countries surely.
But what if apostates are wrong? The eagerly awaited decline that was to be precipitated by widespread Internet access has certainly been a long time coming. Then came this year's service report with reasonable increases: USA 3%, Britain 3%, France 2%, Norway 3%, Australia 2% and so on. They don't match the increases of the 1980s for sure, but it certainly doesn't show decline either, and JWs do much better than most denominations in Western countries.
American sociologist Rodney Stark wrote an article in 1997 trying to explain why Witnesses grow so rapidly:
http://www.geocities.com/rogueactivex/JWGrow-O.pdf
Stark has become renowned for also predicting the rise of the Mormon Church to become a new World Religion in the twenty first century. He also writes books with generally pro-religion provocative arguments such as that Christianity grew in the Roman empire because of its message of love and that Christianity is responsible for the growth of capitalism and liberal democracies.
In 1997 he also argued that JWs have shown remarkable growth in their history, which is no doubt true. What is more interesting is that he predicts in the new century they will grow exponentially. Not only on the basis of past growth, but because their structure is well calibrated for future growth in a number of key respects that he outlines by means of concise axioms including:
I suspect more than a few former Witnesses would argue that the last one at least may prove problematic for JWs since they stress a number of key doctrines that involve knowledge claims that can be tested empirically, including the 607 BCE date and presentations of their own history. But other than that Stark makes a reasonable case for viewing the prospects as good for the future growth of JWs. British sociologist Andrew Holden attached some importance to Stark's argument in his book Jehovah's Witness: A Portrait of a Contemporary Religious Movement where he used the projected growth as an argument for the increasing importance of studying JWs as a sociological phenomenon. Others have not been as impressed by Stark's projections however, such as ex-Witness scholar Richard Singelenberd who largely devoted his review of Holden's book to disputing the claim that JWs continue to experience significant Witness growth.
l. New religious movementsare likely to succeed to the extent that they retain cultural continuity with the conventional faith(s) of the societies in which they seek converts. l. New religious movementsare likely to succeed to the extent that they retain cultural continuity with the conventional faith(s) of the societies in which they seek converts.
we are all afraid of death, well most of us i should say.
that fear explains a lot of our behaviour, and with that in mind we could cut each other a little slack.
take those on the forum who come here to defend either the witnesses or their belief in god.
We are all afraid of death, well most of us I should say. That fear explains a lot of our behaviour, and with that in mind we could cut each other a little slack.
Take those on the forum who come here to defend either the Witnesses or their belief in God. Why are they often so fierce, bitter and caustic? I say it's obvious. They are not merely defending their view of the world or how it really is. By countering other conceptions of reality they are ultimately defending their precious and hard-fought hope that death itself may be overcome. Ask them to give up their beliefs and in effect you are asking them to give in to death. No wonder they fight so hard! So let's treat them a bit more gentle, and recognise that the "facts" are probably not what they are crying out for, despite protestations to the contrary. Arguing over footnotes of evidence may not help. From my own experience I know that when I used to wage war with bad ol' apostates over the Internet it was because I was afraid that bit by bit my fantasy that death might be avoided was being dismantled. That was what was driving me when I think about it. There were other factors in the mix too including pride and my life situation to be sure, but the fear of death looms large.
But what about those of us who have lost faith in the Witnesses and in God: why are we often just as fierce, caustic and bitter as those defenders of their faith who are trying to assuage their own mortality? That makes no sense does it? We have largely given up on hopes for immortality, so it can't be fear of death driving our vehement defence of our worldview. A pure devotion to the "truth" of the situation does not explain it all either. I reckon it often boils down to envy of believers and the hope they have been able to maintain against the odds. When I lost my faith I got a reality check that wiped out my ability to believe in a future paradise or any kind of life after death. I certainly don't wish the world really was this way, but it "is" and we have to deal with it. Often I even think I would rather still believe if that were possible, and I know others here have expressed similar sentiments. So no wonder we sometimes envy those on a certain level who have managed to retain their faith either in the Witness worldview or in a personal God awaiting us when we die. Of course there are lots of things we do not envy, least of all the ignorance and the mind control involved in believing in the Witnesses, and other belief systems for that matter. We don't envy that. But the hope they have, I am sure we all envy that sometimes. It's simply not fair they get to still believe it all, when I can no longer bring myself to believe it! And that can drive us to be a little less kind during debates than perhaps do justice to our personality. It's a bit like having dropped our ice cream on the floor we feel the urge to knock the ice cream out the other's hand. That's sounds mean doesn't it? Well I think it really can be mean like that.
Believers are driven by death fear and non-believers are driven by hope envy, and the results are debates that often veer off the page onto the personal and become bitter.
If this argument has some "truth", then maybe looking at the situation this way can help us be more reflexive when debating each other: believers and non-believers.
watchtower society declines to return disputed 100,000 legacyby emilie filou, third sector, 13 february 2008 .
the charitable arm of the jehovah's witnesses should return a 100,000 legacy from a man it expelled for trying to convert call girls, one of the man's relatives has said.. martin davis said the watchtower society should return the money left to it by his cousin donald kennett so it could go to kennett's nephew, who is autistic.. accepting money from a member who had been expelled would damage the charity's reputation, said davis, of dulwich, south london.. kennett was befriended by a jehovah's witness in the 80s when recovering from a serious car crash and joined shortly afterwards, davis told third sector.
he was 'disfellowshipped' from his group in stockport in 2001 after members discovered that he was contacting call girls.. when kennett's mother died in 1994, she had left half her estate to him and half to his autistic nephew.
I agree with Gadget. Also make sure you have an up-to-date will!
What country did this happen in?
And WTWizard, what's all this about Nigeria?
