today is saturday and you all know what that means.
today is the day for our special worldwide event of our new tract number 38. luckily our (sales route) sorry... our preaching was rained out.. now you may ask how can i stomach the wt propaganda and be able to take the group out in service, still give public talks, comment, etc?
very simple answer, love.
laverite said: 'When they walk door to door, they walk so slowly you'd think they were in a Matrix like slow-motion movie scene.'
lol. As a never-in, I've always been puzzled when I've observed the stop-start shuffle that JWs use on their occassional visits to my street. I thought it was perhaps some religious ritual but it seems it's all about maximising time while minimising brush-offs.
i finally came to the realization that i am ugly.
i'm 28 years old and never had a girlfriend.
women pay me absolutely no attention when i'm in public.
I don't know if J Hofer's comment was tongue in cheek, but either way I agree with him. If you were truly hideous people would stare.
You've had lots of good advice. My two top tips would be to exercise (swimming is great for both fitness and physique) and to go to ballroom dance classes (you will definitely make contact with women).
i am listening to roar by katy perry right now .
i listen to it several times a day as a pick me up.
this song is so motivating and empowering.
A devout JW might be keen on The Who's 'My Generation', especially the line 'I hope I die before I get old'. Of course the song also includes the line 'Why don't you all fade away?', which would be a good question to plant in their minds.
about the circuit i grew up in:.
last decade, a congregation was dissolved.. last year, about a half a dozen or so congregations meeting in a double-hall got re-orged and it works out to one less congregation.
they received all new territories, bodies of elders, publishers.
Londo111
Using your figures I make the growth for all of Scandanavia just 0.681%, which is a lot less than the 2.77% growth you calculated and, I suspect, below population growth rates.
science imo does not have all the answers.
when i discover gaps in science, it's easy for me, as a temporary measure to fill in the gaps with god.
i do this until i have learnt something new.. what about you?
Kate
It's not a question of IQ, but I think a problem with just saying god did it when there is a gap in our knowledge is that it can remove the incentive to understand and deepen our knowledge and also create an unfounded belief in a god, which history has shown can become extremely prejudiced against alternative explanations of natural phenomema.
Ancient peoples thought that volcanoes were where dragons lived, Norsemen thought a thunderstorm was a sign that Thor was fighting Loki and earthquakes have been blamed on the wrath of god. All of these explanations have been proved wrong (although some people still believe in the last one!) but these beliefs all arose because someone invented a supernatural reason for something they didn't understand. Wouldn't it have been better just to accept that lack of understanding?
Bemused
well no, not really, but i was glancing down the contents page of the january 2014 awake!
and saw reference to a japanese scientist with a suspiciously chinese sounding name.
sure enough, clicking through to the article revealed that the lady is from taiwan not japan.. ok, that's just a silly editorial mistake.
Well no, not really, but I was glancing down the contents page of the January 2014 Awake! and saw reference to a Japanese scientist with a suspiciously Chinese sounding name. Sure enough, clicking through to the article revealed that the lady is from Taiwan not Japan.
OK, that's just a silly editorial mistake. However I read the article, looking out for the often employed WT practice in science articles of the unattributed quote. I was not disapponted. Apparently a 'professor' (we're not told who) wrote a 'book' (not allowed to know which book either) saying that complex proteins could not have arisen 'randomly' (so what? - evolutionary science does not claim that life arose randomly). It's no wonder that most JWs I've met have no idea what evolution actually teaches, but they are nevertheless sure it's wrong.
ok guys i need help.
for all those atheists or agnostics or maybe christian science people--what are some great sites to explore our existence, the universe, bible history and archaeology, pretty much all one needs to make a decision on their beliefs.
lets show the lurking jws that we can collaborate on something, and help a confused fading jw (me) explor his options and actually research.
Search on YouTube for videos from 'Potholer54'. He's an ex-science journalist and his videos are very informative and often funny as well.
i`m an optimist and i would say zilch .
i would bet you a million dollars ( if i had a million dollars ) that if you did a survey in the street that you live , asking the householders what is the life saving message jehovahs witnesses bring to your door on a regular basis , they would not have a clue.. and they have been preaching this message for over 100 years .
how inefective can they be .. the probable answers you would get are : they dont take blood transfusions.
As a never-in, all my friends and acquaintances are non-JWs other than a few family members. Unless someone has a JW relative I would say they would have absolutely no idea what JWs believed in. When I tell people that I have JW relatives they sometimes ask what it's all about and it's usually clear they know nothing at all about the WTBTS. For many it's a surprise that JWs use the Christian bible, so I think it's safe to conclude that the missionary work has not been a great success.
I agree with ABibleStudent that JWs are seen as harmless. There's usually a few jokes about hiding behind the curtains until they go away but I can't recall ever hearing a negative comment from a non-JW.
i have been on this forum for a number of years now, and one thing that seems to be a persisting theme is the "battle" between atheists and believers.. what i have not understood is the extent to which the supporters of either side engage in showing their position to be the correct one...and in turn debunking and demeaning the opposing position, or in many cases, insulting the intelligence of the holder of opposing belief.
i guess the simple question is, why?
does it really matter, or cause harm to be a supporter of either side of the coin?
I always try to respect the person but that does not mean that I will necessarily respect their beliefs. For example, I don't respect a belief in the predictive power of astrology and I think it would be wrong to do so, because there is no evidence whatsoever to support such a view. However when criticizing astrology, it is polite to focus on the belief and not the person expressing that belief (who may simply be misinformed, indoctrinated or whatever).
this is my first post, so let me introduce myself briefly.
i am not, nor ever have been, a jw but i have a close family member who has been a witness for many years.
i have been curious about my relatives beliefs for some time but have only recently looked in any detail at what witnesses actually believe, which led me to this site.. i have seen references to changes to generational teaching but have not really understood what it was all about until i read the article let your kingdom come but when?
Thanks for all your replies. You've clarified a lot for me about the initial contact with potential new recruits. Several of you mentioned a lack of recruits in more developed countries, so perhaps in the West at least JWs will go the way of the Catholics where growth has stagnated and regular service attendance has fallen away, while following Catholic doctrine seems to have become optional (divorce, sex before marriage, contraception etc). I don't think JWs are quite there yet though.
