by Hadriel 43 Replies latest watchtower bible
The trend of die-hard J.W.`s to divorce a former believing mate could be having a backlash on the religion , rather than pointing to it as the" true religion", it`s doing quite the opposite , the public are seeing it for what it truly is a wrecker of marriages .
smiddy
no prob. Trends is really easy to use. There are also many sites you can use ti investigate keyword searches to forecast things and so on. It can be used also for this purpose so as to gauge public interests.
take it with a grain of salt though. In no way saying this means this or that. It does point out. that the topic is less noteworthy over the past handful of years. That much is clear.
Yes, I was going to ask about the graph, too, but someone (Steve2) already had. Thank you both.
Why is it every time this is discussed, people take either extreme? It is always either "the religion is going to be gone in 10 years, (or less)", or someone points out how some fringe group like the Amish or Christadelphians still exists, (the latter does not even spell check), so the WT will be around in current form forever. Neither extreme is correct.
The facts:
1. The religion has undergone major changes in the last 10 years in response to a changing society around them, (unless of course you subscribe to Ayn Rand's theory that society does not exist. Then I can't help you...).
2. All of the changes have been reactionary or tactical in nature, not strategic. Tactics eventually fail, given enough time. This is probabilistic in nature. A long-term strategy would need to be developed for their long-term existence, and this the WT does not have. Authoritarian organizations rarely do, and eventually die out because of it, as social evolution takes place.
3. Moore's law, (including all technology that it has promoted, internet, smartphones, etc.), is having a significant effect on society in general, accelerating the pace of that evolution, and all organizations, groups, or individuals that resist the changes brought by it appear more ridiculous all the time, (just look at the republican party today). The intelligent and otherwise sane ones slowly depart, causing a "brain drain", leaving only the crazies. This further drives out the remaining sane ones, which creates a positive feedback loop that leads to further instability.
On the other hand:
4. Religions die hard, so nothing immediate is likely to befall the WT.
5. Religious beliefs are also difficult to overcome on a personal level, if one has much invested in them. By nature, authoritarian groups require significant investment of personal resources, so this happens almost by default with a religion such as the JW.
I have said this many times on this forum recently that a tipping point has likely been reached where it has at least become highly unlikely, if not impossible for any non-born in/raised in person to become a JW. The days of making intelligent, educated converts is over. This is a good indicator that the organization is in a long-term demise. That demise will take time, probably several decades. They will eventually wither away, but likely exist in some form as the fringe groups mentioned.
d4g
Hadriel said: It absolutely does break up families.
I can attest to that. But then, they can brag they are following Jesus' example in the Bible at:
Matthew 10:35: For I have come to turn a man against his father, a daughter against her mother, a daughter-in-law against her mother-in-law. - NIV
Done4good, many threads over the years have echoed your views, so you are not uniquely arguing for a more considered view of the organiztion's future. In fact, I have often said the organization's msin growth is nowadsys not from door-knocking but born-ins.
I agree there at times is a preponderance of those who confidently predict jw organization will spectacularly decline within years, whilst others (fewer) argue it will be a sizably growing organization for decades more. The emergjng actuality is somewhere in between. 2015 saw the smallest growth in publishers worldwide for literally decades.
