Posts by DJS

40

Athiests: Do you ever wonder... what if?

by toweragent in

jw
friends

i'll start by saying, i'm a ministerial servant who is trapped in the religion.

my wife is hardcore...but i've slowly been getting her to lighten up, so i'll take it!

all my friends and family are jw's, and i am employed by a jw (who is actually a great boss).

DJS

Toweragent:

Regarding this: "For those of you who are now athiest: Do you ever look back and wonder "what if"? What if the god of the bible is real? What if there is a creator who is not the god of the bible?"

My response would be never, not even for a nano-second. But like MadGiant, I spent decades questioning the god/bible thing, even when I was in the Borg and even (especially) when I was an elder. I studied, researched, analyzed, evaluated and meditated on the topic to the point there wasn't anything left to consider. And guess what? I found, at the end of the sojourn, that I was an atheist.

I knew at the beginning of the trip that this could/would be the eventual destination, but I took my time, removing one brick and a time until the foundation (god, the bible) was left. Then I dug that up. I have referred to it previously as my "Pink Floyd" trek into atheism - Another Brick in the Wall.

I never worry about anything beyond this life. I try to live this life to its full. For those who ask me what would I do if there turned out to go a god I respond the same everytime: If there is a god, and she created me, then she knows me, who I am and why I made the decisions I made. The weight of evidence is against a god; I think you probably already know that. But really, what does it matter what you believe? Your belief in a god or not is not going to change anything, even YOUR future.

Good luck.

52

I FINALLY found a car I like & brought it home tonight = )

by FlyingHighNow in

jw
friends

after nearly seven months of bus rides and asking for rides, i have purchased a car.. for all of you who made helpful suggestions & contributions to my car buying thread, especially zed is dead, thank you so much.. my thread asking for advice on car buying:.

suggestions for car buying23.

i bought a 2009, pontiac g 6. my reasons for choosing a g 6: this car gets great miles per gallon.

DJS

FHN,

Congrats!!! I'm about to purchase my very first car from the 21st Century, so I know you you feel!!!

32

Malaysian flight crash in Ukraine VS Flight 93 in Pennsylvania

by EndofMysteries in

i wonder if anybody else has wondered about the differences between those 2 flights?

in the malaysian flight that crashed from 30,000 feet high, tons of wreckage, body parts, bodies, documents, etc, all over the place.

yet in the pa flight 93, just a crater in the ground, no bodies, everything supposedly vaporized.

DJS

LisaRose,

Yeah, exactly. I have worked with a lot of these people; I know how very well trained they are and most all of them are round pegs in round holes - they WANT to help others and get it right. And you are welcome; your kind reminders have kept Simon from booting me!!!!

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

DJS

Steve2,

New Zealand is another example of a highly secular society where religion has been on the decline for a long time. The % of atheists in NZ is among the world's highest. NZ also routinely shows up on the list of happiest countries and ranks number 12 or so in average IQ. Paying attention dubs and those who continue to spew that atheists are whore and war mongering child killers???????????????? It is my personal objective/mission to respond with more empirical data each time one of you theists tell me defnitively how bad it's going to be when we are all atheists. I will stop when you stop.

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

DJS

Blondie,

Thanks for that; it fits the close/combine/consolidate strategy I see occurring. Using existing assets is a plus, as it shifts O&M costs for a non-production sunk cost to the production costs for a production unit (KH).

I can close my eyes and 'see' the spreadsheet they have built. The rows are the easy part - they are the however many thousands of congregations/KHs. The columns are the genius of the spreadsheet, including the types of data they will evaluate and the math/weightings they give to each, for which congregations get new KHs, which are combined and which ones just have to make do (run to fail or at best maintain at the minimal level). I could build this thing on my own in a few days.

Columns would include: Existing options (such as the assembly halll you just mentioned) for combining and consolidating - and potentially enabling closing. That would have the highest weighting. Other columns: b. zip code/zone; c. Historical and projected population change; d. Historical and projected income levels; e. Historical and projected educational levels; f. Historical and projected changes in racial/ethnic makeup of population (weighted higher than simple populaton growth); g. age and current condition of KH; h. Whether KH is shared and by how many congs.; i. Whether KH is paid for; j. Low-cost transportation available (poor congs. without would be rated high but poor congs with low cost and available public transportation would be rated lower); and k. Historical and projected growth (past/future 10 years for publishers- congregations with high recent growth of newbies would be weight higher than established congregations with little or no growth. Those with high projected growth would be weighted high. This is the second most important column, as the math would include weightings from other columns, such as ethnicity, income, education levels of population).

If you tied this thing in with real time census data the damn thing could run on its own. The Dark Lords could make decisions simply based on the math. Likely, well established and financially ok congs. would wait a long time for a new KH or serious maintenance for existing. Based on what some have stated, the the Dark Lords expect the KHs to send them a monthly check AND put some $ away to fix things, this seems to be exactly where they are going.

White, middle class congs. with low growth would be the last to receive any assistance. Wealthy congregations, because of their wealth, would likely fare better even though they would mathematically not do so well in the spreadsheet. The Dark Lords would either call these 'exigent' circumstances or more likely create a column which allowed them to weight wealthy congs. higher. It wouldn't be a 'legitimate' dataset or weighting, but the Dark Lords could soothe their consciences about favoring wealthy peolple by blaming it in on the math.

The decisions would be made for them. Other than tweaking the formulas and the weightings, seriously lurkers, this thing could run on its own.

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

DJS

The Borg strategy for decades was to build, or have built by the local cong., smallish KHs which would hold about 150 or so. The KH would then be shared when it got over that by splitting into two smaller congs., and then build another KH of similar size nearby when the numbers allowed. They used to brag about keeping the size small, comparing it to the 1st Century and stating that it was so much better for the sheeple than the large mega-churches.

That strategy worked until it didn't. I would guess that the highest profile task/assignment at the Dark Tower now is a cadre of MBAs and other business experts who are laying out the corporate structure and identifying cost saving measures, which we have seen for a while now. When that met with limited utilitarian value, they appear to have addressed the other thing in their control, paying very close attention to each business unit (DO, CO, Elder, DC, RBC, Branch, Missionary, Bethelite, etc. - think of these as 'overhead' not directly associated with production) and make cuts, closures and consolidations.

When that exhausted its financial abilities to give the Borg the bottom line and cash flow desired, they did something very different - they appear to be morphing into a completely corporate structure where the production units, the KHs, are now being targeted. If they are closing, combining and consolidating in Europe, they will most certainly do so in the US. It will be interesting to see if the rank and file will be willing to leave their existing KHs, which they probably live within minutes of and for which they have shed blood, sweat and tears and provided $$ to keep afloat, and drive to new and larger KHs which combine several congs.

That, IMHO, is where they are going. So expect more mega-KHs in the future, driven by economics. The Borg's MBAs are closely evaluating changing demographics (religiosity, education, economic status, and racial/ethnic profiles) of every community to best determine the most efficient use of funds. If they technically 'own' the KHs, it makes this corporate shell game of closing, consolidating and combining much easier.

Will the rank and file be OK with their own KHs closing/combining/consolidating??? Shiny new KHs may do it for some; for some, eh - not so much. That, IMHO, is the 64 dollar question. The European example will likely become standard.

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

DJS

Ignoranceisbliss,

You may be right; none of us really know. Based on what I have heard from you all, they likely have a lot of cash, but have no intentions using it for capital projects and little intention for using it for O&M. The cash wouldn't last long if they had to. So both statements appear correct. Funding O&M and capital projects out of this 'reserve' fund would be similar to the dying days of a business. Lack of cash flow to cover operational costs and expansion is one of the primary reasons for business failures. The Borg is a business.

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

DJS

joe134,

I would agree. Although the Dark Lords in the Dark Tower are benefitting from the sell-off of billions of dollars worth of assets at Mordor (Brooklyn), they have zero intentions of using this for anything other than their own comfort and benefit. Day-to-day costs (operations and maintenance) and expansion (capital) costs for developing worlds and KH replacements (maybe) arent going to see any of the cash from those sales. So what do you do?

From what you all have been saying: You downsize (magazines, corporate structure by eliminating DOs, streamlining conventions (very surprising since conventions used to be cash cows), fewer Bethelites, missionaries, Branches, etc.), merge/combine to save costs, especially in 'non-profitable' areas (such as Denmark and other European lands where there is a net decrease), and develop new sources of cash flow (the Borg now 'owns' all of the KHs from what some of you say and has implemented a cash grab from the local congregations).

They are likely awash in cash from the sell-off of the property in Mordor; much of that will be used to fund their own 'lifestyle.' But they appear to be acting a bit desperate for cash flow. Let's hope so.

The Borg owning the KHs and greedily attempting to grab as much cash from the rank and file as possible, IMHO, is a process fraught with potential problems. Liability, KH replacements, dis-illusionment of the rank and file as time goes on if their KHs and KH bank accounts both take a beating, etc. I would think that the lawyers in the Dark Tower have been making a lot of decisions recently.

30

Denmark Assembly Hall and 7 KH for sale

by Viva la Vida in

jw
friends

this is the real estate page: http://propertysale.dk/salg/helsinkivej.html.

.

DJS

Much of Europe is becoming less religious by the year, so the Borg is feeling the pain like a lot of religions. That's a very good thing. In every survey the Danes come out as one of the happiest (top 5) countiries in the world. They have a strong blend of government and capitalism, with a strong economy and social structure. The differences between the haves and have nots is much lower than in the US and some other countries in the developed/developing world.

In addition, the Danes, are among the smartest (IQ) people in the world and rank as one of the most atheistic countries (depending on which survey they are often indicated at number 1 or 2). They certainly are among the least religious.

As I pointed out to Ruby on another OP (she didn't want to hear it), there is a very strong correlation between atheism and societal functionality, intelligence, education and happiness. The Danes just might be the best example. The Borg isn't likely to reverse this trend. Looking at the numbers and the culture, one could speculate that the Borg could eventually nearly disappear in Denmark.

320

Richard Dawkins defends mild pedophilia, says it does not cause lasting harm

by chrisuk in

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/10/richard_dawkins_defends_mild_pedophilia_says_it_does_not_cause_lasting_harm/.

DJS

Ruby,

We have referenced this data before; it is widely available, and it comes from many sources. You can keep your head up your nether regiions and refuse to believe it if you wish. You clearly don't want the facts to confuse you. Being decent and ethical hasn't a thing to do with religion or a god. Nor should it.