slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  13

  How baptism rate at conventions relates to yearbook growth rate (Discussion)

  by bohm in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we had a number of posters report on the baptism rate at conventions which is usually less than 1% and rates lower than 0.5% is by no means uncommon.

  despite this there is still a positive growth rate in the us (0.71% according to the yearbook) and i wonder how these numbers relate.

  i wonder if anyone can help me out if these assumptions are true:.

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  slimboyfat

  When I attended regularly (1996 to 2002) the number baptised was around 15 to 40 at district conventions and 0 to 15 at circuit assemblies.

  I doubt there is any way you can collect enough anecdotal information to provide any meaningful comparison with official figures. As others have pointed out, "total number of baptised JWs" is not a statistic that has ever been published anyway.

  What are you trying to work out?

  Are JW statistics generally reliable? Yes

  Have they made some mistakes and is there some evidence of falsification? Yes

  Nevertheless the official statistics are generally reliable.

  In any case I would argue that the single most important statistic for giving a picture of growth, vibrancy, or decline over the long term is the number of congregations. And the great advantage of this statistic is that it's very hard or impossible for JWs to falsify since congregation meetings are individually listed publicly.
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  18

  Moral indignation against "faders" shows JW apologists are morally bankrupt

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i came across this weird blog that castigates fading jws for their "cowardice" and "hypocrisy" for not making themselves vulnerable to shunning.

  apparently in the view of this blogger jws who discover it's not the truth are morally obliged to play by the watchtower rules and face the consequences of shunning.. http://jwresearchblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/fading-faking-and-lying-as-unbelieving.html#comment-form.

  what is absent from the blog post is any discussion of the statement in the july 2009 awake!, that no one should be made to choose between their beliefs and their family.

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  slimboyfat

  I came across this weird blog that castigates fading JWs for their "cowardice" and "hypocrisy" for not making themselves vulnerable to shunning. Apparently in the view of this blogger JWs who discover it's not the truth are morally obliged to play by the Watchtower rules and face the consequences of shunning.

  http://jwresearchblog.blogspot.co.uk/2015/06/fading-faking-and-lying-as-unbelieving.html#comment-form
  

  What is absent from the blog post is any discussion of the statement in the July 2009 Awake!, that no one should be made to choose between their beliefs and their family. If JWs actually stuck by that statement there would be no such thing as faders and no moral dilemma to grapple with. The problematic situation is entirely of their own making, and the failure of JWs to stick by their own pronouncements against making people choose between beliefs and family. The moral deficiency is with the Watchtower and those who help implement its hypocritical stance toward those who realise the religion is faulty, not with those who are trying to extricate themselves in the least damaging way.
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  70

  Are we in a computer simulation?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=znmk2viuqba.

  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/simulation_hypothesis.

  consequences of living in a simulation[edit]some scholars speculate that the creators of our hypothetical simulation may have limited computing power; if so, after a certain point, the creators would have to deploy some sort of strategy to prevent simulations from themselves indefinitely creating high-fidelity simulations in unbounded regress.

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  slimboyfat

  Sounds like a good argument for God to me.

  Heidegger was right that existence and consciousness are linked in a deeply mysterious way.
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  17

  Change(s?) to revised nwt

  by Saltheart Foamfollower in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  i don't think this has been picked up anywhere yet.

  the revised nwt released in 2013 is already out of date.

  the second half of psalm 51:4 now reads "therefore, you are righteous when you speak, you are right in your judgment" in the online version where the printed version reads "so that you might prove righteous when you speak, and be right in your judgment".. fairly unimportant in itself, but i wonder what else has been changed without telling anyone..

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  slimboyfat

  22 words cut to 15 words and then cut down to 13 words.

  Is there any way to keep track of these changes?
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  31

  Brexit...

  by The Rebel in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  the london stock exchange up, every share index up, the pound up against the dollar.

  where is the fire and brimstone?.

  the rebel..

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  slimboyfat

  I can't believe what England has done. I'm still in shock.
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  36

  Very dark and confusing info...

  by sp74bb in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  some internal sources in jw.org has brought me attention to the following data:.

  - in which european country, not member of the eu, and well known for their banking industry, jw.org and some affiliated structures do maintain some business incorporated structures and companies?.

  - which is the purpose of these business and company structures?.

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  slimboyfat

  Remember the special pioneers who were stopped at the Swiss/Italian border with billions of dollars worth of US bonds?

  http://njnnetwork.com/2009/09/jehovahs-witnesses-arrested-in-116-billion-seizure-of-fake-us-bonds/
  
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  510

  What Music have you Been Listening to this Last Year ? Post You tubes if you Like !

  by flipper in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wktxjuyiat4.

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  slimboyfat

  "It's only four degrees" and "Drone bomb me" by Anohni.

  https://youtu.be/Fi0q0O4V5Qs

  https://youtu.be/8Pei4SnavUk

  Kraftwerk

  https://youtu.be/OQIYEPe6DWY

  Klaus Nomi

  https://youtu.be/iNahvGXVWl0

  Katzenklo

  https://youtu.be/RZq3_mASEbo

  Altered Images

  https://youtu.be/dfqPJp7Q7qE

  Gaudeamus Igitur

  https://youtu.be/aLUKfU2AOBY

  He Will Call

  https://youtu.be/PQgHkZW8S0I

  Personal Jesus by Depeche Mode

  https://youtu.be/u1xrNaTO1bI

  America - A Horse with No Name

  https://youtu.be/NAFePPwJMQ8

  Introduction and Allegro by Elgar

  https://youtu.be/jrpyayMMP0g

  Bulletproof by La Roux

  https://youtu.be/Kk8eJh4i8Lo
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  38

  JWs destroy archaelogical artifacts

  by John Doe in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  thousands of years old.

  this makes my blood boil.. http://www.telesurtv.net/english/news/jehovahs-witnesses-destroy-ancient-indigenous-temple-in-mexico-20160628-0009.html.

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  slimboyfat

  JWs didn't do it because either:

  1) the people who did it were not JWs

  or,

  2) if the people who did it were JWs then they weren't real JWs because real JWs would do that
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  15

  To UK members that go to meetings - did Brexit cause a spike in meeting attendance last weekend?

  by freddo in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i went to the mid week meeting and looked at the attendance figures on the noticeboard for the three congregations that share the local kingdom hall.

  i wrote down the three previous sundays attendances and this sunday (after the referendum) too.

  cong c. (95 pubs) 74/82/73/90.

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  slimboyfat

  Plausible theory, impossible to know.
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  18

  What were the Bible Students expecting in 1914, after all?

  by EdenOne in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  skimming through old watch towers, i encountered this statements on the 1914 january 1st edition of the watch tower (vol.

  xxxv, p.5373), in the article "views from the watchtower":.

  "so far as our judgement goes, the year 1914 is the last of what the bible terms "gentile times" [...] the end of their "times" marks the date for the beginning of messias' kingdom, which the bible declares is to be ushered in with a great time of trouble, just such as we see impending.

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  slimboyfat

  Eden the situation as I understand it is this:

  Russell for decades predicted that 1914 would mark the end of the time of trouble and the start of kingdom rule on earth.

  However as 1914 grew closer this prediction appeared increasingly untenable. Time was running out. Therefore Russell switched his prediction to stating that 1914 would mark the beginning of the time of trouble and kingdom conditions would follow shortly after.

  Therefore the quote you have found was from the period when Russell was already backtracking as regards what he predicted would take place in 1914.