Posts by shepherdless

62

Other Religions use the Name JEHOVAH too

by UnDisfellowshipped in

are jehovah's witnesses really the only religion that promotes and preaches the name of jehovah?.

jw's are always claiming that they are the only religion that preaches and uses the name jehovah, and that is why only they will be saved.

for example, look at this quote from the watchtower:.

shepherdless

I don't know how many people realise this, but the Roman Catholics have multiple bible versions. From about 400 AD until the early 20th Century they relied mostly upon a version called the Latin Vulgate. The Old Testament / Hebrew Scriptures portion was based on 6 versions available in the 2nd Century, including the Septuagint, and others that only now partially exist, or are lost. (The Masoretic version not in existence back then.)

The Latin Vulgate used "Dominus" in place of Yahweh, but the current most authorities version of the Old Testament / Hebrew Scriptures used by the Catholics, the Jerusalem Bible, which is sort of like the Interlinear, has "Yahweh" all through it (but not in the New Testament/ Greek Scriptures). My very Catholic Parents had a copy.

So for me it has always been laughable to hear JW's imply they are the only ones to use the name. I even still remember the words to a Catholic Hymn that began "Yahweh is the God of my salvation, I trust in Him..." etc.

15

The UK WTS companies' accounts documents for 2015 are currently available to download and here's information plus links

by AndersonsInfo in

jw
friends

the uk wts companies' documents for 2015 are currently free to download from the uk government's companies house website.

the person who sent me this information said that it appears they are testing a new form of the website, so access to documents may in the future revert to a pay per file system.

therefore, he advises getting copies of documents as soon as possible, as he doesn’t know when the testing phase will finish.

shepherdless

SBF - When in the statement would it give the amount of money spent on litigation?

It is ~~hidden~~ covered by "Provision of serviced facitilites". See note 5 on page 12 of the IBSA 2015 financial statements:

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

Thanks Stuckinarut. Bit of humor I threw in at the last moment.

SBF - The information about the average age of JWs getting older is very interesting because increasing average ages of religious believers are strongly correlated with decline.

We have both mentioned this on previous threads, and I think we both agree median age or average age is a reliable predictor of whether decline is coming. Unfortunately, I had extracted some additional data that I did not realise the significance of, until now. (It is complicated, and I have to work out a way of tabulating it in an easy to understand way)

Essentially, people between the ages of 15 to 25 leave the religion in droves. However, it appears that a number of people come back to the religion as they get older, in a continuous trickle, especially as they are having kids. They probably drag spouses in at the same time. (There are other ways to interpret the data, but that is my guess at the moment.) The number of people who do return are a significant minority, and the religion would have already been in numerical decline if it was not for them. This makes a difference to how you interpret the median figures.

On a brighter note, in the 2006 census, there were 80,918 JW's. In 2011 the number was 85,635. However, 3472 of those 85,635 reported that they were not living in Aust in 2006 (Aust has a very high immigration intake). Hence, without immigration, the total increase for the 5 year period from 2006 to 2011 would have been only 1,245.

I'll try to put up some more tables when I get the chance.

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

Just some other minor info:

I haven't provided the data on age and sex for JW's as yet. As most of you know, it is lop-sided. You might be surprised to know the equivalent for the Mormons (Aust census):

2006:

Male: 25,070

Female: 28,129

Total: 53,199

2011:

Male: 28,311

Female: 31,458

Total: 59,769

For the Scientologists:

2006:

Male: 1,522

Female: 984

Total: 2,506

2011:

Male: 1,273

Female: 890

Total: 2,163

(Yes, Scientologists seem to be disappearing.)

So sheilas, if you wanted to pick up a bloke, you really chose the wrong cult!

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

Here is a sheet (2011 census) showing how badly JW's compare to the Aust population in terms of income:

I have some more data, including something very interesting, abd probably the most important info of all. I may not be able to upload it until tomorrow, however.

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

Median ages in Australia. In the 5 year period from 2006 to 2011, JW's median age went up 2.3 years, whilst the median age of the rest of Aust went up 0.2 years. Data summary of Median ages:

Aust 2006: 36.5 yrs

JW 2006: 38.1 yrs

Aust 2011: 36.7 yrs

JW 2011: 40.4 yrs

Note, these median ages were manually calculated by me. The last decimal place might be slightly out.

Marital Status - here is a table for 2011 that is hopefully self explanatory:

I have some other data that I am not going to tabulate. Instead I will summarise in words. JW's have pretty much the same internet access as everyone else. They are evenly distributed across urban and rural areas and across the country (unlike, say Mormans that are more prominent in urban areas and on the East coast). The percentage of JW's born overseas is roughly the same as Australians in general. If anything, JW's are slightly more likely to be born in Aust.

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

SBF - [The book author]...says that getting access to the more detailed information in census returns can be tricky even for academics, and expensive. It should be possible to get the figures for earlier censuses and track JW education over time. But it might cost to access the information and the information might be difficult to extract.

A couple of years ago, I got passwords for the 2006 and 2011 census databases. (All legit.) This was before I joined this forum. I downloaded a fair bit of data, but it is a more complicated task than it sounds, for reasons I wont go into. (It is probably expensive, because it is time consuming, and will do your head in.)

I had planned to do it again once the 2016 census data was available, and produce a comprehensive report on the status of the cult in Aust, but I am not sure I will be able to. Given this thread, I will add a few snippets of what I have, even though it is old data (2006 and 2011). I will do so in subsequent posts.

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

Further to Vidiot and DJS, I have wondered myself in the past whether the issue is whether low education is due to the cult or vica versa. IMO a desire for educational achievement is at least partially cultural, and the JW culture in relation to education is about as negative as it can get. However, I sense that the cult is a bit of a haven for those who want to hide. So my 2c worth: I think it is a bit of both.

Back to the original topic, here is a table I extracted from the 2011 census in relation to how JW's fare against other Australians in terms of education:

This is raw data I extracted directly from the ABS database a while ago. It doesn't compare JW's against other religions, but shows they are pretty poor on the academic front, compared to the average.
I will make some other posts in relation to Aust census data. I have a fair bit of info, but not in easily presentable form.

136

Sun,moon, earth and mathematics .

by atomant in

just thought id let you all in on some info i found on northeasttruth.com.

that magical moment where the moon blocks out the sun!

but only just enough to perfectly cover the suns disc, whilst still allowing us to see the corona of light and other electromagnetic forces radiating from it.. this only happens because the moon diameter is exactly 1/400th the size of the suns and is positioned at exactly 1/400th of the distance between earth and the sun!so, when we see it from the surface of earth, we are in the only place this can ever be seen, at the only time it could ever happen.

shepherdless

Minor correction to Giles's post: I think an earth year is 365.24 days, so there is an even less of a "numerical reciprocal relationship".

Also the ratio of Earth mass to Moon mass is 81.29, not 81, which blows away a whole heap of the "numerical pareidolia".

And on it goes, through the rest of the article.

41

New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

by slimboyfat in

the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

shepherdless

And from that graph, it shows that Athiests (47.63%) are the highest educated ones...

That must be a typo, because the figure for "% of Adults" is only 25.66%.

Also, note the figures for "Pagan" are probably due to a few clowns. (Australian humor, perhaps.) Or perhaps they mistook "Pagan" for "Bogan".