Posts by shepherdless

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

Canada and Australia each have only just completed, or are in the process of completing a census. (The one in Australia has been a debacle.) So the book must be based upon the results of the 2011 census in each country. I think NZ had a census in 2013.

As a result, I suspect the data and book SBF refers to is a bit out of date.

A while ago, I managed to download a whole heap of data about JW's from the Australian 2011 and 2006 censuses. I have had a plan to get the data from the 2016 Aust census and produce a comprehensive and up-to-date summary, showing trends. It will be a few months away, because typically, it is a while before the results of a census are released.

I don't have the data with me as I write this, but from memory it not only showed JW's were way less likely to get tertiary education, they also earn far less and have slightly fewer children. They are also getting older than the overall population, and have around the same divorce rate as the general population. In the older age brackets, there are far more women than men.

In a side note, I read an old thread about the Aust census where people were puzzled why there were more JW's listed on the census than publishers listed in the yearbook. The answer is simple. Take out the JW's aged between 1 and 10 and the numbers almost match. (Take out JW's between 1 to 15 and there are too many publishers.)

7

The worldwide fear policy....

by The Rebel in

jw
friends

it seems the media heavily underline the dark side in everything.

yes there are really bad problems in the world and they need to be addressed.

but we also need to keep on the positive.

shepherdless

So do you also feel the news people and politically correct groups focus too much on the dark side of everything?

The main problem is that most "good news" stories are not newsworthy stories. Some simple examples:

- The decrease and eventually eradication of the recent Ebola epidemic in West Africa was virtually unreported.

- Globally, Polio is at the lowest levels ever recorded. In fact, there has not been a single case reported in any of the last 4 weekly updates. But there has not been a single mention in any media, that I am aware of.

- Terrorism in Pakistan; yes one recent tragedy, but the last year, it has been pretty quiet. (Incredibly quiet by the standards of the last decade.)

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

shepherdless

Thanks for the clarification SBF

Keinzelard, in answer to what I think is your question, it is not lack of money causing a lack of membership growth. Nor is lack of membership growth the primary cause of money problems. WTBTS seems to be facing 2 separate major problems at the same time. The first problem is that WTBTS traditional source of funds, selling bible literature, doesn't generate income any more. The second problem is that their proselytizing efforts are failing. The 2 problems are related, but it is not one causing the other.

36

Three graphs in connection with the Watch Tower's current financial situation

by slimboyfat in

a number of public statements by the governing body indicate that they are experiencing financial difficulty and they have appealed to jws to donate more money.

public information on the financial situation of the watchtower society is limited.

but what does the information they do publish indicate about their situation?

shepherdless

Excellent data!

The charts for "number of ordained ministers in branch facilities" and "money spent on special pioneers, missionaries and travelling overseer" seem to track well against each other. It is puzzling how one could increase only 35% and the other 113%, though. That would be over 7% p.a. inflation.

It looks like "ordained ministers" cost around $9000 p.a. on average when back in 2006 they cost $5,500 p.a.

Why is it necessary to have 27,000 "ordained ministers in branch facilities"? If I compare that to the Catholic church, I note that around the same number of priests serve the hole of Mexico and Brazil where there are around 320 million Catholics. And those priests do a lot of the work equivalent to what an elder might do at a Kingdom Hall. There are gross weaknesses in that comparison, but 27,000 seems a large number to look after a religion of 10 million.

103

JW and the Sabbath

by Andromeda in

hello brothers and sisters and truth seekers,.

i am an active jehovah's witness.

i don't believe in 1914 and i'm tototally against their way of dealing with abuse cases.

shepherdless

Hi Andromeda, I can't help but notice from the following quotes you have a thing about Jesuits, and Opus Dei:

Andromeda - I suppose no one here is aware of the Jesuits and their agenda.

Andromeda - Which is why I even mentioned the Jesuits at all because whether anyone wants to believe or not that our education and information is filtered by their (opus deis) people under them, it is what they do.

Andromeda - Like I said I google the Jesuits you may be mind blown to find out that what you think you know might not be even the truth.

Andromeda - And no I won't elaborate on the Jesuits.

Leaving aside the obvious point that Opus Dei has no connection to the Jesuits, can you please let us know what the "agenda" is? I am Jesuit educated, but I have no clue what you are talking about. (I probably was not paying attention in class when we were taught world domination, etc.)

I get the impression that you are dying to tell us the "agenda". And given the current Pope is a Jesuit, well, I think it is more important than ever that the nefarious schemes of the evil Jesuits be laid out for all to see. Please tell us more!

12

Something's Gotta Give

by pale.emperor in

i've been 100% alone since my df last month.

i'm dead to my family now, unless i return to their cult - so i recently made contact with 3 former jw's that were in my cong when i was in my youth.

to my surprise, they all had exactly the same doubts and reasoning i had and said even though they've been out 6-7 years they "still feel tied to it in some way" and "feel guilty celebrating xmas or birthdays".

shepherdless

Hang in there, pale emperor. I have been following your story. You have made some tough decisions, but I am sure it will be worth it in the long run.

As for the likelihood of the Borg changing, I agree with scratchme and Outlaw above.

251

God is Real in Principle

by looter in

jw
friends

now the majority of people nowadays do no go by the hope of old times.

now the reason for this is important and goes beyond mere words.

our culture sees ethics especially national or civil politics as the rules and standards by which we guide ourselves.

shepherdless

Image result for pic feeding troll

24

Do you think any animals will ever reach human intelligence?

by EndofMysteries in

if all life was truly random, then what happened that allowed humans to it's current intelligent state, do you think non humans could and will reach that in the future?

.

shepherdless

Unlikely. The following is a brief summary why.

Brains use up a lot of energy. Broadly speaking, animals have evolved to have a brain size sufficient to do the task at hand, but no more. Occasionally evolution has caused the brain to shrink compared to an ancestor (eg Australian Koala, which has something of a split brain). Very few animals use tools, but those that do, need bigger brains than other animals. Certain primates use tools, as did our ancestors.

An ancestor to humans (homo erectus from memory) was the first animal that used fire as a tool. This was a crucial step, and set a chain effect in motion. The disadvantage is that fire is such a complicated tool, it needed a bigger brain. The massive advantage is that it allowed homo erectus to cook meat and other food, making food safe to eat, and making it easier to digest. (Cooked meat requires around 30% less energy to digest than raw meat, even in a species not used to cooked meat, as some documentary I saw, demonstrated.)

Once our brains became more capable, our ancestors found other things to use them for, and obtained further advantages over the rest of the animal kingdom. This in turn gave bigger brained smarter beings an advantage over others, etc.

I can't see another species achieving that unless humans die out, and another species evolving enough to be able to use fire as a tool.

8

Brighton RC Baptism Numbers

by konceptual99 in

so there was a peak attendance of around 8700 (as i recall - i was dozing...).

baptism numbers - 24. so around 0.27%.

it may be slightly up or down on that depending on the actual attendance.. the majority of baptism candidates were young people so very likely born-in..

shepherdless

That is pretty consistent with the figures given for Abbotsford BC by berrygerry in another thread.

It seems not that long ago that people were pretty chuffed when there were reports of baptism figures of 0.5%. Now it seems to be regularly below 0.3%.

Wonderous stagnation is taking place!

15

£1 million pound fine

by pepperheart in

hi a court in the uk in loughborough have fined the jws over £1 million pounds for the court costs for a child abuse case in loughborough in the east midlands..

shepherdless

Strictly speaking, there is no fine. It is an award of damages of £275,000 plus costs, which means that Watchtower has to pay the legal costs of the plaintiff. Someone has estimated costs at around £1 million.

All the same, learning that Watchtower will have to pay out £275,000 plus approx £1 million, has made my day. It doesn't look like there is any avenue to appeal, now, either.