Posts by shepherdless

92

Does Morality Exist?

by Fisherman in

some people believe that stealing, lying and killing, is not moral.

some people don't.. does morality exist?

if so, prove it..

shepherdless

I would put it this way:

"Morality" is an abstract noun, and like many abstract nouns, can not be found in nature. You can't go to the back garden or down a mine shaft and dig up a lump of morality.

Morality is a concept invented by humans that exists only in the mind of one or more humans. It happens to be a very useful concept, but that is beside the point. It follows that the boundaries of morality are defined not by the concept itself, but by what the relevant human mind decides are the boundaries.

There is no absolute morality. To imply otherwise is to misunderstand the word.

19

marriage"equality" survey, Australia.

by zeb in

jw
friends

the australian govt has set out a survey to see if people are in favour of changing the marriage act to include same sex couples.. hm here have received their papers?

the survey promises to be anonymous but has a substantial bar code at the bottom... anonymous yeah right.. the marriage act once said "two people" then a previous prime minister changed it to say "man and woman" all that is needed to amend this situation as required by the gay community is change it back again to "two people" there, done and dusted.. and millions of dollars need not be wasted on this survey which is not compulsory as is voting in australia.

can anyone here who still goes to kh tell us if this has had a ruling from the platform?.

shepherdless

Yes Smiddy, you are right. I have never heard of a prosecution, though.

I know JWs who have lived in Aust for decades, and never intend to return to their country of origin, but just have "permanent residency", specifically to avoid compulsory voting. Of course others do what you did; wait for the $20 fine to come in the mail and write back saying they didn't vote on religious grounds.

They are pretty lenient on withdrawing fines. I remember reading in a newspaper about a voter in (I think) Qld, who successfully got the fine waived with the excuse that he was on the run from Police on polling day, and was not able to get to a polling booth.

19

marriage"equality" survey, Australia.

by zeb in

jw
friends

the australian govt has set out a survey to see if people are in favour of changing the marriage act to include same sex couples.. hm here have received their papers?

the survey promises to be anonymous but has a substantial bar code at the bottom... anonymous yeah right.. the marriage act once said "two people" then a previous prime minister changed it to say "man and woman" all that is needed to amend this situation as required by the gay community is change it back again to "two people" there, done and dusted.. and millions of dollars need not be wasted on this survey which is not compulsory as is voting in australia.

can anyone here who still goes to kh tell us if this has had a ruling from the platform?.

shepherdless

Wake me up, if you received a form in the post, that means you are on the electoral roll. All the voting forms were posted to individuals listed on the electoral roll, at the address recorded on the electoral roll.

The forms themselves don't have your name on them, but do have a unique bar code. I have read that if you find out someone voted on your behalf (a criminal offence), it is possible to have that vote excluded from counting, based on that bar code.

19

marriage"equality" survey, Australia.

by zeb in

jw
friends

the australian govt has set out a survey to see if people are in favour of changing the marriage act to include same sex couples.. hm here have received their papers?

the survey promises to be anonymous but has a substantial bar code at the bottom... anonymous yeah right.. the marriage act once said "two people" then a previous prime minister changed it to say "man and woman" all that is needed to amend this situation as required by the gay community is change it back again to "two people" there, done and dusted.. and millions of dollars need not be wasted on this survey which is not compulsory as is voting in australia.

can anyone here who still goes to kh tell us if this has had a ruling from the platform?.

shepherdless

You have to be on the electoral roll to "vote" in this survey. A lot of JWs are not on the electoral roll.

For what it is worth, it sounds like no direction on whether or not it is permissible to "vote" has been given at my wife's Kingdom Hall.

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

shepherdless

Really, more required to make a web page than print and ship hard (physical) literature? I’ll let you think about that position for a while before i bother responding.

I never said they were "required". In fact I can't work out why there are so many bethelites, or what they do.

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

shepherdless

Hi Sparky, I am fairly sure that the origins of sbf's comments on the money earnt go back to the following old thread:

https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5260919340793856/bcg-matrix-jw-org-production-model

At least that is how I understood it. I think sbf mis-remembered the relevant date period (it was early 80s, not 1970/80s). I mis-remembered it myself, as 1985, and as $2mil per week, not $1.7 mil per week.

Morpheus, as long as it was properly managed, it can't have been zero profit. We were getting 100 page broadsheet newspapers delivered to our door for around that price, at around that time, and the newspapers were seen as profitable.

Another way to look at it is that even if you argue that those bethelites working under sweatshop conditions were only making the Borg $100 million p.a. revenue (1980s $) back then, now you have even more bethelites producing a website that earns the Borg diddly squat.

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

shepherdless

yes, LV101, it seems to be a high volume low margin business. Lots of newspaper and magazine publishers used to make a lot of money from a lot of individuals' small change. Not so, these days.

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

shepherdless

Question for Sparky:

lets say of the 11,150,000 Watchtowers of 1 Jan 1985, half were sold by subscription, and half by door to door or paid for by JWs themselves.

11150000 x (0.16 + 0.2)/2 = $2,007,000 or about $2 million revenue?

Also, didn't Awake sell almost as many copies per edition?

Aren't we getting close to $2 million per week revenue, without including the sale of books, or am I missing something?

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

shepherdless

Just in response to Sparky, I recall reading that Watchtower was making about $2 million per week in 1985. I don't know the circulation of around that time, so I don't know if that is plausible.

192

Question for SBF

by Fisherman in

slimboyfat, it appears that wts is going, gone digital.

can you show your view what is wts next move after they are completely gone from kings county and settled in warwick?

- this thread is your if you want it..

shepherdless

Its always made its money selling hope and dreams of panda petting paradise to people. Books were just the vehicle to do that.

For most of its history, it made the bulk of its money selling magazines (and in the early days, books) to members of the public, not so much its own members. I think one of the Studies in The Scriptures books was the third highest selling book of all time, at one stage long ago (the bible holding the no 1 spot).

Hell most religions have sold nothing since their inception and have done very well.

Other religions tithe. If you count elders as clergy, Watchtower has a much higher ratio of clergy to adherents than other religions. Other religions do have businesses. SDA has food companies, nursing homes, a University, and goodness knows what else. Catholics have huge property portfolios, schools, hospitals, hospices etc. Other religions are far less micromanaging. Watchtower has to come up with a new "church" service twice a week, whereas Catholics, for example, give the identical church service every 3 years. And to top it off, many Christian religions are starting to struggle.