shepherdless

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Posts by shepherdless

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  64

  Why is there such a 'high turnover' within the Jehovahs Witnesses?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i happened to come across a time article in 2008. it was basically talking about the high turnover in american faiths.

  it mentioned the jdubs and highlighted the following point.. an even more extreme example of what might be called "masked churn" is the relatively tiny jehovah's witnesses, with a turnover rate of about two-thirds.

  that means that two-thirds of the people who told pew they were raised jehovah's witnesses no longer are — yet the group attracts roughly the same number of converts.

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  shepherdless

  Hi jp, I have no research, apart from anecdotal observations. Nevertheless, your points 2 and 3 seem spot on to me. I also agree that intelligence (whatever that means) is not a significant factor.

  Could you expand on what you mean by point 1? Also, if you have any easy links to publicly available relevant scientific data, I for one would be interested to see it.

  Anecdotal observation and intuition suggests to me that another important factor is how “street-wise” a person is. I don’t know how that can be measured.
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  50

  The wonder of scientific research

  by amicabl in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this has possibly been brought up before however here goes.. constant reference is made by many posters to scientific research as being the only way to prove something factual that would otherwise have to be taken on faith.

  there actually seems to be "faith" in scientific findings.. my experience over many years is that most scientific research is fake.

  nothing oftencomes of the big announcements made to raise more money.. money, prestige, pride, human error, suppositions etc., are rife amongst the scientific community.. i realise that there have been many advances over hundreds of years but humankind is in a mess, although very different to even a century ago.. the medical profession now has vaccinations for everything, antiviral drugs etc.

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  shepherdless

  Slidin fast quotes Ben Goldacres’s book, which is brilliant.

  For a comical expose on the pseudoscience of the cosmetics industry, the following episode of “The Checkout” is very very good:

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bicx6Txo2jE
  
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  50

  The wonder of scientific research

  by amicabl in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  this has possibly been brought up before however here goes.. constant reference is made by many posters to scientific research as being the only way to prove something factual that would otherwise have to be taken on faith.

  there actually seems to be "faith" in scientific findings.. my experience over many years is that most scientific research is fake.

  nothing oftencomes of the big announcements made to raise more money.. money, prestige, pride, human error, suppositions etc., are rife amongst the scientific community.. i realise that there have been many advances over hundreds of years but humankind is in a mess, although very different to even a century ago.. the medical profession now has vaccinations for everything, antiviral drugs etc.

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  shepherdless

  Nobody should have “faith” in science. When properly carried out, it is based on logic, evidence and observation.

  A lot of the problem is that there are many goods and services marketed with “sciencey” sounding words and phrases. There are a lot of people selling alternative medicines, alternative treatments, dietary supplements, vitamins, cosmetics etc using these “sciencey” sounding jargon.

  For a lot of those items, the manufacturers have never produced proper double-blind tests to demonstrate any actual benefits.

  And then 5, 10 or 15 years later, someone does some proper research and shows that those vitamins, antioxidants, omega3 oils, skin moisturisers, or whatever, were of no benefit, and possibly harmful, etc. It undermines the average joe’s trust in science, even though there was never any proper science associated with the product to start with.

  500 hundred years ago, witches etc might have sold their useless concoctions with impressive sounding oral witchcraft spells. Now the same witches market all their food supplements and cosmetics with “sciencey” sounding phrases.
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  14

  South Ossetia declares Jehovah’s Witnesses ‘extremists

  by pleaseresearch in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the supreme court in the breakaway south ossetia has ruled that jehovah’s witnesses is an extremist organization and banned its activities.. when the ruling comes into force in a few days, jehovah’s witnesses members will face up to 10 years in jail for any religious activities such as assembly and distributing literature.. http://dfwatch.net/south-ossetia-jehovahs-witnesses-49295.

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  shepherdless

  South Ossetia has a population of 53,000. Surely there can’t be many JWs there.
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  19

  Look what I got for five bucks...

  by Nosferatu in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i think i've found the one true religion!.

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  shepherdless

  Looks like an original on ebay sells for around $200. Well spotted.
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  44

  Did you leave the JW RECENTLY? Really? Recently? WTF were you thinking?

  by The Real Edward Gentry in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  not to be overly harsh...but if you just left, what the hell were you thinking?

  between 1995 and now, you never did an internet search of "jehovahs-witness" or "watchtower"?

  good god.

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  shepherdless

  For a long while, I could not make sense of why any moderately intelligent person could be a JW. I just did not understand human psychology. I suggest the o.p. watch the following video:

  https://m.youtube.com/watch?t=247s&v=IaUhR-tRkHY
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  23

  Update on the $4000 day fine - Padron v Watchtower

  by berrygerry in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  from reddit:.

  this was an oral argument to dismiss the $4000/day fine.

  both sides presented their arguments and now the judges will write an opinion (30 to 90 days).

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  shepherdless

  I think the amount owing now is nearing $2 million. They will have to produce the docs eventually, if they lose the appeal. They must be very damning documents.
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  14

  Daniel 8 For Dummies II - "The WT Strikes ...

  by Farkel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  daniel 8 for dummies - part 2: "the watchtower strikes back" .

  i've posted this one before, but it's been updated and is especially geared for you true believing dubbies out there.

  what i'm going to discus is important even though you may not have the attention span to digest it, because this is your religion and what it still teaches.

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  shepherdless

  Thanks for reviving this, Diogenesister.

  A while ago, I searched to see if anyone had started a thread on Daniel 8:13-14, but didn’t find anything, for some reason. I was going to start my own thread, but I thought it best left to someone more knowledgeable than me.

  In short, Daniel 8:13-14 is possibly the scariest sounding passage in the bible. It sounds like something out of Lord of the Rings. Daniel 8:17 confirms it is an end of time prophecy. It is the same section that spawned the Millerites and the Great Dissapointment.

  How does Watchtower interpret the culmination of the earth-shattering momentous events described? Answer: it refers to an amendment in 1944 to the corporate filings of a Pennsylvania corporation not even mentioned in the bible.
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  23

  NWT from Greek/Hebrew into other languages?

  by Counter-Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does jw org claim to have translated the nwt into other languages from greek/hebrew?

  because if they did claim that they would have to have biblical scholars in biblical greek/hebrew from every language, that would be a ton of ppl!

  and take a lot of time!.

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  shepherdless

  Thanks for the detailed answer, David Jay.
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  23

  NWT from Greek/Hebrew into other languages?

  by Counter-Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  does jw org claim to have translated the nwt into other languages from greek/hebrew?

  because if they did claim that they would have to have biblical scholars in biblical greek/hebrew from every language, that would be a ton of ppl!

  and take a lot of time!.

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  shepherdless

  A question for Caminante, or anyone else who might know.

  I understood that the Greek Orthodox use the Septuagint as their equivalent to the “Hebrew Scriptures” (Old Testament). The equivalent section of the NWT is based on the Masoretic. Surely a person who grew up in the Greek Orthodox Church would find that portion of the Greek version of the NWT a bit odd, or lacking credibility?