slimboyfat

Joined

• started 539 topics
• posted 17,694 times   see topics posted on
• send a message

Posts by slimboyfat

• 
  13

  Lowell Goddard - ‘treated sex abuse victims with contempt’

  by darkspilver in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  full page width headline along top of page 14 of the uk's observer newspaper (sunday 14 august 2016) states.

  judge ‘treated sex abuse victims with contempt’lowell goddard accused by lawyer of walking off inquiry before ruling on victims’ applications.

  remainder of article appears to be the same as online version that is now available at:.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  The British establishment at its finest.
• 
  41

  New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

  the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

  the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  The census figures are a bit old (2006, 2006 and 2011) but still very informative. I've got a book by James Lewis on the demography of NRMs called Sects and Stats. He says that getting access to the more detailed information in census returns can be tricky even for academics, and expensive. It should be possible to get the figures for earlier censuses and track JW education over time. But it might cost to access the information and the information might be difficult to extract.

  Unfortunately the UK census returns are totally useless when it comes to JWs because it tends to lump them together with other groups under "Christian".

  Census results in many countries consistently give higher numbers for JWs than the Yearbook numbers. At the same time there are always far fewer Mormons in the results than the Mormon church claims. (They claim 146,000 members in Australia for example, while the census shows 52,000, a pretty huge and fairly typical LDS discrepancy)

  It's also interesting to note that the Canadian census results show stagnation and decline in JW numbers even as the Yearbook numbers continue to climb. It may be that while the official number has grown, there are fewer "cultural" JWs now than in the 1980s.
• 
  49

  Dissenters in Watchtower History: Differing Departures

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  i'm reading an excellent book about defectors from the mormon church called differing visions: dissenters in mormon history.

  through a collection of essays from many academic authors it looks at the life stories of dissenters and reasons for departure, as well as analysing the impact of their dissent on the church itself.

  fascinating stuff and makes me wish there was a similar volume looking at the key dissenters from jws/watchtower and the impact they had.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  careful I'd be interested to follow up this defector from Taiwan!

  I heard there was a huge breakaway in the Philippines too.

  Lots of really interesting suggestions here from everyone.

  I've learned a lot about Joseph Booth and Elliot Kamwana in the past few weeks - really fascinating stories.

  Just a weird addition, but I read the other day how the inventor of Dungeons and Dragons was a JW. I wonder if he'd be worthy of inclusion,

  Or president Eisenhower for that matter, although I don't think he ever really embraced the religion of his mother at any stage.
• 
  41

  New study - JWs by far the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand

  by slimboyfat in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  the religion of the educated classes revisited: new religions, the nonreligious, and educational levels - james r. lewis .

  the measure lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

  the findings are similar to the results of the pew survey in the united states.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  The Religion of the Educated Classes Revisited: New Religions, the Nonreligious, and Educational Levels - James R. Lewis

  The measure Lewis uses to compare religious groups is what percentage of members of the respective religions have graduated from college.

  The findings are similar to the results of the Pew Survey in the United States. However they are based on census results of the whole population and are therefore not extrapolated figures or subject to margin of error as the Pew Survey was. It's therefore a much more robust evidence base for demonstrating that JWs are the least educated religious group in Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

  Only 6.3% of Jehovah's Witnesses in Canada have completed college, compared with 20.9% of the general population (Catholics 17.7%). In Australia 5.33% of JWs have graduated from college, compared with the national average of 14.5% (Catholics 19.09%). And in New Zealand the respective figures are 4.94% and 14.17% (Catholics 18.7%).

  The only other religious group that comes anywhere close to JWs in lack of education is Satanism is New Zealand. But they are a relatively small religious group (just over 1000 members) and marginally more adult Satanists than JWs have a college degree.

  Members of all other religious groups are significantly more likely than JWs to have completed college. This indicates a high level of obedience among JWs to the leadership's direction to avoid higher education. Especially when you consider that of the few JWs who have gone to college, many may have done so before conversion, indicating that only a tiny percentage of those who are brought up as JWs manage to go to college while remaining in the religion.
• 
  84

  Why are the atheists on this site so hateful?

  by HopeEverLasting in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  all us creationists try to do is offer true evidence that the one and only god is out there watching and looking down on us.

  we present that certain scientists know the truth about god and that he is everything that we see from trees, life, weather, the air we breath, and even the most simple molecules.

  but of course you atheists reject it because it is your nature to not be humble and see god because you want to rule your own life.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  There are atheists on this board? They must be so mild mannered I never clocked them.
• 
  7

  An old lady's plea to see her granddaughter

  by Tallon in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  if this isn't heartrending then i don't know what is !.

  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b5p_w9mcjdm.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  The original video with the old lady is at least a few years old because I remember it being posted on here years ago.
• 
  10

  Article in respected UK newspaper The Guardian - mishandling of sexual abuse

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one day, they are going to have to face the music here just like they did at the australian royal commission.. looking forward to they day immensely.

  .

  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/12/jehovahs-witnesses-under-pressure-over-handling-of-sexual-abuse-claims.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  And I was trying to be recursively ironic. Ah well.
• 
  10

  Article in respected UK newspaper The Guardian - mishandling of sexual abuse

  by jambon1 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  one day, they are going to have to face the music here just like they did at the australian royal commission.. looking forward to they day immensely.

  .

  https://www.theguardian.com/society/2016/aug/12/jehovahs-witnesses-under-pressure-over-handling-of-sexual-abuse-claims.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  People are crabbit on the forum all the time. A correction of crabbit behaviour is not in order, get over it. ;-)
• 
  16

  Why do so many JW's argue that they do not believe what they clearly do?

  by Crabby in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i ask a question recently, which was why do jw's not salute the flag, and i ask what page of the bible directs this practice.. all i got back was that i do not know what i am talking about and that they are allowed to do this, when i dropped 40000 google links proving that they do not salute the flag they just deleted it as though my proof could not exist.

  seriously this is common knowledge, my neighbor just put up a flag to keep the guy across the street away.

  so are there jw's who have no clue what they believe, or should believe?

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  Are you sure it wasn't Mormons you were talking to?
• 
  10

  Hottest Topics - New Sort by Rank Option

  by Simon in

  1. forum
  2. announcements

  i have just enabled a new sort feature which should appear as a new tab called "rank" on any of the topic listing pages (by forum or subject within it).. there's also a "hottest" link in the main nav.. what does it do?.

  well, think of it like active topics ... the latest things go to the top.

  except instead of anyone being able to make something go straight to the top simply by posting on it, now the ranking is based on a combination of things including how many likes and dislikes they have received combined with when the posts were made.. what should happen is that likes for new posts will give them a boost as will replies but over time their effect will diminish.

  1. 
  2. 
  3. 
• 

  slimboyfat

  It's already there, unless there's a New Zealand delay. ;-)