Posts by shepherdless

14

Ex JW Reddit numbers going crazy

by Crazyguy in

jw
friends

i don't know what the membership increase is like here but over at reddit their getting 20 plus newbies daily if not more.

it's crazy how much thier growing 2000 or more since i signed up and that wasn't that long ago.

looks like the loyalty conventions didn't stem the tide.

shepherdless

It looks like typically 2 or 3 sign up a day, judging from the last few days. However, I don't think you can compare, because that site is for a different genre (less interested in any lengthy debates), and seems to have a lot more young people.

Some don't seem to post anything. I first signed up to this site years ago, with a cool username, and never posted a thing. (Someone else here, uses that username, now). It took me a while to have the courage to post anything.

Perhaps large numbers are signing up because Flodin recently warned about apostate websites. It would be interesting to see if it continues at that rate, because if 20 people are signing up per day, that is 7200 per year. And if only 1 in 10 people who visit the site, sign up, that would indicate potentially 1% of publishers around the planet are checking these sites out, in any given year. I suspect Simon would know more about what is going on, how many "hits" etc.

13

New Dutch Assembly Hall Swifterbant - 17 September 2016

by darkspilver in

jw
friends

a new 2,500 seater assembly hall in the netherlands - which expands to 3,500 seats for the annual conventions - is being dedicated on saturday 17 september 2016.. the existing hall on the site is converted into a venue for the wt schools - lecture room with ancillary accomodation - bedrooms, kitchen, canteen, study areas etc etc.

background information:.

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/261089/big-jw-changes-netherlands-holland.

shepherdless

From the earlier thread, it looks like this expansion was planned over 3 years ago. It seems to me the money worries have mainly been since, in the last 18 months or so. I suspect that they wouldn't make a decision to commence such a project, these days.

19

Are the Jehovah's Witnesses really false prophets, perhaps being mentally manipulated by the Watchtower Corporation ? ?

by Finkelstein in

there is a lot of public scrutiny going on these days about the jw religion particularly on the inter - net.

one of the posed questions which gets debated and discussed quite often, are the jws false prophets instigated to preach a tainted commercialized gospel under the direction of the executive leaders of the watchtower corporation ?

these focused men who are responsible for creating the core doctrines of this organization.

shepherdless

I agree wholeheartedly with your first post, Dunedain. That pretty much sums up how I see it. However, I think the demise of the Borg will be a long slow drawn out affair.

Most religions that have folded ran out of members, not money. (Christian Science may be a partial exception.) However, Watchtower has (by my rough reckoning) a much larger central bureaucracy to support than other religions, when taking the number of rank and file into account. So perhaps Watchtower will be the exception.

218

Debating With Evolution Deniers is Just Like This

by cofty in

arguing with those who reject scientific evidence can be like arguing about football; just as angry and passionate, but the goalposts keep moving, and one team doesn't exist.. read more here....

shepherdless

The George Wald quote is from a Scientific American article in 1954. I can't locate a free copy of the article on the internet, but there are at least 2 people who apparently have read it ans say the quote is out of context. Here is one:

http://www.don-lindsay-archive.org/creation/quote_wald.html

Vid - Scientist needs to decipher and isolate DNA and gene sequences with algorithms, meaning DNA was constructed by means of algorithms.

That is like saying "Scientists need microscopes to view bacteria, meaning bacteria are created with microscopes."

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 - But it would be really interesting to know the gender breakdown for different ages. Are men more likely to leave than women in their teens and twenties? If so this would corroborate the often heard complaint that there are not enough young JW men for young JW women to find husbands.

Below is some data from the 2011 census, in %ages, rather than raw numbers. I hope it is self explanatory. General observations: the gender breakdown is not as extreme as some think, or as reported by Pew in USA, 2014. A part of the explanation is that there are slightly more women than men in the population overall, especially in the later years (women statistically live a bit longer). In order to give a true and sanguine perspective, I include the figures for the overall population as well.

I apologize for not producing nice pretty charts, and being brief. I have a JW family milling around, potentially looking over my shoulder at any moment, even as I write this.

13

“The Jesus-followers’ first 200 years”

by Doug Mason in

the archaeologist digs and then sifts through remnants from the past, assembling the discoveries into patterns so that stories of the past may be brought back to life.. with almost 850 direct quotations from 50 books, my study sifts remnants from the first 200 years of christianity and sorts them into patterns that may help others to assemble a vessel that can hold ideas, or to form a skeleton where muscle and flesh, heart and mind, may be applied.

a comprehensive contents listing is provided at the rear of this study.. my study, “the jesus-followers’ first 200 years” is available at:.

http://www.jwstudies.com/the_jesus-followers__first_200_years.pdf .

shepherdless

I had a read through, and found it very interesting. Well done Doug!

It encouraged me to look up a translation of the Gospel of Thomas. It seems to be just a series of "wise" sayings by Jesus, some of which are familiar, and some very wacky zany stuff. For example, this translation of verse 114:

(114) Simon Peter said to him, "Let Mary leave us, for women are not worthy of life." Jesus said, "I myself shall lead her in order to make her male, so that she too may become a living spirit resembling you males. For every woman who will make herself male will enter the kingdom of heaven."

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

Hi prologs and atomant, can you examine and let us know if there is anything we can learn about the following fascinating observations about the Washington Monument by Martin Gardiner?

[I]f one looks up the facts about the Washington Monument in the World Almanac, he will find considerable fiveness. Its height is 555 feet and 5 inches. The base is 55 feet square, multiplied by 60 (or five times the number of months in a year) it gives 3,300, which is the exact weight of the capstone in pounds. Also, the word "Washington" has exactly ten letters (two times five). And if the weight of the capstone is multiplied by the base, the result is 181,500-a fairly close approximately of the speed of light in miles per second. If the base is measured with a "monument foot," which is slightly smaller than the standard foot, its side comes to 56 1/2 feet. This times 33,000 yields a figure even closer to the speed of light.

(Quote by Martin Gardener, in his book "Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science", 1957)

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

This is the final chart I will put up from the 2006 and 2011 Aust census.

What I have done is taken 5 year cohorts from each census and lines them up so that you can see in each age group, how many remained JW's over a 5 year period. Eg, there were 5119 JW's between the age of 15 and 19 in 2006, but in 2011 that same group (now aged between 20 and 24) dropped to 4597. The fourth column is just the difference between columns 2 and 3, for ease of reference.

One of the questions in the 2011 census was in relation to which state or territory you were living in in 2006. The fifth column is the number of those living overseas in 2006. The sixth column is just the 4th col, less the 5th col, for ease of reference.

This data shows the leaving in droves from 15 to 24, and the trickle back in subsequent years. Note what happens in the 5-9 bracket. From 70 onwards, mortality takes its toll.

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: