Simple Questions that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot readily answer... (page 2)

DaCheech

Got ya. I remember an Elder bragging at his home that he was so faithful, that he had no money in bank

(it was probably stuffed in his mattress)

Sunspot

4 - If the publications are life-saving material passed down to God's Organization on earth from him, why would the WTS object to republication and vigourously defend their copyright?

Another reason may well be that if the mags are on the 'net, everyone would have access to them and they would be even more scrutinized, analyzed and generally picked apart and making the articles appear foolish and having little credibility.

I feel that the WTS purposely keeps these under wraps, so to speak, and only "places" them with the unsuspecting public.

joenobody

Precisely Sunspot - much like the admonition not to distribute the WT CD-ROM to anyone but Witnesses. They need to keep control over who has that kind of resource.

gumby

Here's another intresting question you could ask them:

Is it possible to get ink poisening if you wipe your arse with the magazines?

Gumby

funkyderek

If the publications are life-saving material passed down to God's Organization on earth from him, why would the WTS object to republication and vigourously defend their copyright?

(Putting on devil's advocate hat for a moment)

So that anyone getting a copy of a Watchtower publication can be sure that it hasn't been altered. If there were no copyright restrictions apostates could subtly change the words used to stumble others or even print their own Watchtowers.

(Hat off)

The rest of the questions are harder to answer, I think. Especially the one about the publications being available online.

joenobody

You are right Derek about the copyright... too many apostates could alter the docs if Joe Blow were posting his own copies of things. Doesn't forgive them for not publishing them on their own official site.

itsallgoodnow

I think the real reason they don't put the publications online is because they need a more personal method of putting social pressure on people. You don't just give them the information, you need to bully them into starting a study, coming to meetings, getting baptized, spending time in ~~field service~~ cult recruiting and feeling guilty about ever damned thing in life. It's easier to click off a web page than it is to tell someone you don't want them to come back, or you want to stop studying.

That's a great question about retirement planning, though. Most Witnesses who can afford to probably put money away for retirement in 401K's, but some very hardliners in my family got pretty pissed at me when I said something about "when you retire", as if it was an affront to their faith and I should have known better. They still think they won't get to retirement age in "this system" (please! I guess they'll just have to face that reality later).

I always love to play with them and mention things about what I think is going to be the situation of the world when I get old (will there be any social security for me?). Yup, I'm going to grow old and die just like the rest of those bastards. They can't even take a hard look at what happened to generations of Witnesses before them and learn from it. That's just sad.

joenobody

Itsallgoodnow while I do think having printed literature does help to badger their Bible Studies, I think the greater reason is simply that they need to maintain a paper for paper exchange (paper magazines and books for the publisher paper money).

Think about it - if you were a JW in North America where most of the donations come from, and you could just download the magazines in PDF format or read them online, would you be as inclined to worry about donating for them?

Jim_TX

I think... regarding distribution of the literatre...

The Internet is not as widespread, as you may think - especially among the JWs. Now... maybe the younger ones - but when you get to those over, say... well, about 45 or 55 years old... I think that their knowledge and ability to manipulate a 'computer' device is probably limited. (I know my ex-wife only knew how to play the games on Windows. Run a word-processor? Forget it!)

Another reason that they want to print them may be the 'control' that they can have over the masses. If they have to get their magazines at the local KH - as opposed to the Internet, that means that they get them there for another 'brainwashing session' - which is very important to that organization.

Regards,

Jim TX

Scully

joenobody writes:

if you were a JW in North America where most of the donations come from, and you could just download the magazines in PDF format or read them online, would you be as inclined to worry about donating for them?

If the WTS were really smart, they would set things up so that visitors to their website could have a user ID along with secure server capabilities for downloading literature and direct donations. It would be a huge thing for them to take advantage of "progress" and "technology" by offering subscriptions via e-mailed or direct-download PDF editions and having automated donations. Do they have any idea how easy it is to forget about cancelling automatic payments??

I probably shouldn't even have posted that. I'd hate to be responsible for giving them ideas....

Love, Scully

Simple Questions that Jehovah's Witnesses cannot readily answer...

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