The internet will eventually be the destruction of this cult. I love it. We are living in a great time.
Numbers don't lie... and these numbers are beautiful!!
by ILoveTTATT2 41 Replies latest jw friends
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berrygerry
The only place it gets close to relating it to Witnesses is in the Insight book under "Love":
One’s Love Can Cool Off. Jesus Christ, in telling his disciples of the things ahead, indicated that the love (a·gaʹpe) of many who professed belief in God would cool off.
Yup, written completely ambiguously.
Many who professed belief in God - could be "weak" JW's, "Christians" "theists," etc. etc.
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JWdaughter
This is kind of ironic because the internet won't destroy other religions. Most of them do not have a heirarchy proclaiming that you will go to hell unless you are of that particular sect. They may say you will if you reject Jesus or if you are not "saved", but they don't really jump the shark as a religion. No one is told that there is one true SECT of people all walking in lockstep that they must be agreement with. So, when there are mistakes and screwups, it isn't going to drag down the ENTIRE foundation of these people's lives. When the ONLY TRUE LOVERS OF GOD are complicit in a variety of abuses, when that becomes apparent, it is about the entire organization. When One guy or even a local church is riddled with some kind of wrongdoing or crime that is covered up at the direction of the head office (pope). With the WT, it all starts and ends with the "organization" or "the society". When an elder gets away with abusing kids because the POLICY of the entire RELIGION requires it, then one has to look at the "truth" of the organization altogether.
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Richard Oliver
You cannot just look at percentage as the only number you look at. Think about it this way, if you get a raise of $1 per hour each year. If you start at $15 dollars an hour the raise equals about 7% but the next year when you get the raise because the starting point is now $16 dollars an hour the increase is now less percentage wise it is now only 6%, then the next year the percentage increase is even lower is only 5% and so on and so on. So Yes in the 40s and 50s the percentage increase for Watchtower was greater because they had a smaller starting number, but as that starting number gets bigger, unless the amount of people you add gets bigger at the same rate the percentage is still the same.
I am not saying that Watchtower doesn't have a increase problem, but you cannot solely look at the percentage increase.
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konceptual99
You are correct Richard if you look at the numerical increase. Sure, $1 on $15 is more of a percentage than $1 on $16. But the thing is that if you were negotiating your yearly raise you would not negotiate a numerical increase, you would negotiate a percentage increase.
If you negotiated a 7% increase each year then the actual amount received would increase. If received less then you would start to get a bit miffed as your percentage raise is decreasing.
The same with the WTS. They love to highlight the raw numbers. 8 million publishers, 19 billion hours, 20 million at the memorial, hundreds baptised each day, thousands of congregations.
The fact is however that percentages are important as they tell the real story on things like the efficiency of the preaching work, the conversion rates and so on. The percentages indicate trends that point to the health of the organisation and it's long term viability.
If you are earning $30,000 pa and get a $10,000 pay rise, that's great. It's far less impressive if you are earning $300,000.
The WTS is not an organisation of 1 million bringing in tens of thousands a year. They are an organisation of 8 million, spending almost 20 billion hours preaching yet in the 2014 service year had net increase of 18,000 people. The 2015 service year brought figures like an increase in average publishers of 26 people in the UK.
The WTS hides the reality with the big numbers but the percentages expose the malaise that is infecting the organisation and shows no sign of disappearing.
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OrphanCrow
richard: You cannot just look at percentage as the only number you look at. Think about it this way, if you get a raise of $1 per hour each year. If you start at $15 dollars an hour the raise equals about 7% but the next year when you get the raise because the starting point is now $16 dollars an hour the increase is now less percentage wise it is now only 6%, then the next year the percentage increase is even lower is only 5% and so on and so on. So Yes in the 40s and 50s the percentage increase for Watchtower was greater because they had a smaller starting number, but as that starting number gets bigger, unless the amount of people you add gets bigger at the same rate the percentage is still the same.
I am not saying that Watchtower doesn't have a increase problem, but you cannot solely look at the percentage increase.Huh?
I thought you had an understanding of stats.
Your reasoning is off on this, Richard
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Richard Oliver
Like I said. I did not mean to say that Watchtower does not have a problem growing. My contention was, looking exclusively at the percentage of either increase or decrease does not provide the whole story and you cannot extrapolate conclusions exclusively on that number. Just like in business, a stockholders or analysts have to look at a whole set of numbers not just one in order to make an informed decision.
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never a jw
but you cannot solely look at the percentage increase.
Percentage is everything. Your analogy is bad
Take a college stats course and you will understand.
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WhatshallIcallmyself
18,000 new witnesses for 10,000,000,000 hours work? So we are looking at an approximate average of 1,111,111 hours of preaching in order to hook 1 person.
That figure kind of sums up their 'truth' doesn't it? Can you imagine any other idea that is 'true' requiring that amount of time to convince just 1 person of its veracity? Or are all those 8 million odd witnesses utterly inept?
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WhatshallIcallmyself
Also, it is the rate of increase that should be looked at with regards to the op. Has the rate been increasing year by year or has it not? They certainly are increasing in numbers but the rate of growth is hitting an all time low. edited to make sense and not nonsense...!