Is this HARD evidence that the INTERNET is hurting the Watch Tower Society?

by cedars 87 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  00DAD

  CEDARS: Well done, very interesting statistical analysis! Of course, as Sir82 correctly pointed out, "Correlation does not equal causation". Nevertheless, it is intriguingly suggestive ...

  Ten cowboys were recently found dead. All of them died with their boots on. And so, apparently it was the boots that caused their deaths. Thus confirming the dangers of wearing cowboy boots. Authorities were however mystified by the meaning of the strange round, bloody holes which all of them had all over their bodies!

  Let's be careful to not fall into the WT Practice of making the factual data fit our preconceived notions.

  Probably another related issue is the overall education level of people in the various "lands". I would hazard a guess that the general population in countries with higher Internet Penetration tend to be better educated and also have a better standard of living. These are just two other factors that would tend work against JW's proselytizing efforts.

  Thanks for sharing.
• 

  jwfacts

  Cedars, they are impressive graphs that must have taken a huge amount of work.

  Though it does not prove a connection to the internet, combined with the following graph I think it shows good reason to see a connection.

  
• 

  besty

  unlucky Watchtower - running out of time on their 1914 sales pitch just as the Internet came on the scene to make sure everyone who wanted to could check the back story.

  Karma is a bitch and we may yet come to see 1995 as the year the WTS started circling the plughole in earnest.

  I still maintain their golden age ended in 1975.
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  dropoffyourkeylee

  Am I the only one, or doesn't Cedar's first graph have the x-axis backwards?
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  smiddy

  Thanks for correcting your graph Cedars

  I was scratching my head their for a while LOL

  smiddy
• 

  life is to short

  Thanks again ceader for this chart. You really do great work.

  LITS
• 

  skeeter1

  How many of our newbies start out with,

  "I'm a still-in Jehovahs Witness and have been lurking here for a while, I want to say "Hi!" In a few months, they are up to 1,000 posts. I think the Newbies say alot on how the Internet is hurting the WTS. The Internet ain't helping the WTS. Street smarts of Skeeter + Book Smarts of Cedar repeat, "The Internet ain't helping the WTS". For that, I got to love Al Gore, inventor of the Internet! LOL.

  Skeet
• 

  redvip2000

  Thanks for the hard work. There might be a correlation there.

  But i think internet access is simply a part of the bigger picture: development!!.

  The countries with a higher rate of internet penetration, probably also have a higher percentage of college educated individuals, and more buying power allowing people to access all sorts of information.

  I hope not to offend any JWs reading this, but what i have observed lately is the tendency of the younger, prosperous, educated and thinking strata of JWs leaving the organization, while the older, less educated, more willing to be led strata remains behind.

  I guess in a way i'm implying that the average JW is getting dumber, but to be honest, it is only logical that this happens.
• 

  cedars

  Thanks for the kind words everyone! It was intense work, but I feel it was worth doing. I certainly won't need to do it again, atleast not for another 12 months! I'm glad I'm not the only one to see a definite correlation. Although, as has been pointed out (and it bears repeating): correlation does NOT equal causation.

  I've removed the first graph with the mistake in it from the server to avoid any future confusion.

  Cedars
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  Qcmbr

  I think this forum is the hard evidence. The number of unique hits each day is very impressive.