slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  28

  Report from Japan

  by wifibandit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  anon in japan says:.

  i served in the third circuit of shikoku japan.

  a few years ago, a well-known theocratic family disassociated.

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  slimboyfat

  The thing is that Internet access is a factor that is difficult to distinguish from other potentially more significant factors such as wealth and security of a country.

  To prove that the Internet is independently a determinant of JW activity you'd need to find poor/insecure countries with high Internet access and vice versa to test it out.

  Pippa Norris showed that religiosity generally is higher in counties with low security and development.

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/Sacred-Secular-Religion-Worldwide-Cambridge/dp/1107648378/

  I suspect JWs follow the same pattern as outlined in this study, although I've never done the numbers.

  In fact I think I can think of a counter example. Internet access has taken longer to grow in Germany than the UK for example, despite Germany being more prosperous. Yet JW growth has been more sluggish in Germany over the past two decades than in the UK. It's weak evidence either way, yet if the Internet significantly slowed growth we might expect the opposite pattern, ceteris paribus.
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  28

  Report from Japan

  by wifibandit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  anon in japan says:.

  i served in the third circuit of shikoku japan.

  a few years ago, a well-known theocratic family disassociated.

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  slimboyfat

  Discussion of Mormon growth in countries with Internet:

  http://cumorah.com/index.php?target=view_case_studies&story_id=339&cat_id=8

  Not sure internet access is an important variable.
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  60

  Introducing Our Rockstar Governing Body

  by pale.emperor in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  isnt nice to see the governing body being so humble, meek and not seeking their own importance?.

  .

  stash: /intesoft-inc.appspot.com/post/005df9f7e68e40cb9b013248fe7b670c.html

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  slimboyfat

  Can't see much wrong with getting pictures taken with people. They look fairly normal.
• 
  28

  Report from Japan

  by wifibandit in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  anon in japan says:.

  i served in the third circuit of shikoku japan.

  a few years ago, a well-known theocratic family disassociated.

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  slimboyfat

  Very interesting what is going on in Japan. I wonder how it will play out and whether other countries will follow the same pattern. The number of congregations is also beginning to decline in Germany and a few other countries.

  Steve the peak year in Japan was a bit later, around 2000 or so, and the publisher numbers are down since then. Pioneer numbers and hours are also down whereas worldwide they've continued to increase.

  Plus you mention the declining Japanese population. To be clear Japan's population was still growing until as recently as 2011. It is set to decline in future based on reasonable demographic projections, but it doesn't yet explain the decline in JW numbers since the 1990s.
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  39

  (Not so) Subliminal Shave Your Beard Message

  by Funchback in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i'm in the middle of dissecting the june 2017 jw broadcasting video.. in the first minute, they summarize a story about a guy who apparently was a one-time bad ass (showed a picture of him with a beard while posing on a chopper).

  then, they show him shaving at the exact same moment the narrator is saying how he regained "a clean conscience".. this no-beard obsession by the jws is beyond nuts.. .

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  slimboyfat

  In a recent WT gentile Christians without beards were portrayed as being shunned and mistreated by Jewish Christians including Peter with beards. See page 23:

  https://download-a.akamaihd.net/files/media_magazines/31/w_E_201704.pdf
  
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  16

  Just had to share.

  by Coded Logic in

  1. social
  2. entertainment

  anybody into art out there?

  i was just so blown away by this piece i had to share.. .

  at first i was just like "oh, that's a clever idea".

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  slimboyfat

  I am at this very moment reading a book with an illustration on the front cover very similar to this painting. Click on "search inside" to view it enlarged.

  https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0230360696/ref=rdr_ext_tmb

  It must be the same artist.

  But the concept is slightly different. In the case of the illustration on the cover of the book I am reading, it seems to be posing the question: how can you be sure the reality behind the representation is accurately depicted?
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  45

  What did NOT get you out?

  by problemaddict 2 in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i realize this is odd, but a "how you woke up" thread and the personal stories that are told which i know we all enjoy, made me think of this.

  in helping my wife and a couple others get the ball rolling, i realized the thing that resonated with me, didn't even move the needle with them.

  i wanted to rail on and on about blood, because that was my conduit to waking up, but for my wife it was about shunning.

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  slimboyfat

  I think the videos make it more interesting and the words on the screen are handy and make singing easier.

  I don't like looking up the scriptures on tablets instead of reading along in the Bible itself.
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  36

  There is no Holy Spirit.

  by hoser in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  there is no holy spirit.

  i lead a double life.

  i post on apostate web sites, swear like a sailor, covertly subvert the watchtower religion and do many other things i'd rather not mention.

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  slimboyfat

  The Holy Spirit is not a person... to be mocked. It is a force... to be reckoned with! How do you know it isn't God's plan to use you in some way? There is time for all of us to repent and serve Jehovah with a complete heart.
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  12

  Darkspilver's attacks - time to respond!

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  remember, remember - darkspilver or darkspliver couldn't even remember his username!

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/282501/calebs-aeroplane-returns-w14-11-15-p-16.

  let's consider spilver or spliver's posts - since he likes to do it to others!.

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  slimboyfat

  I don't know all the details, but I do know he was correct about you misquoting a WT in another thread.

  You quoted the WT in such a way that made it look as if they opposed confessing to the elders in 2010 when in fact the same article advocates confessing to the elders. It was a bit odd and you never responded when the error was pointed out to you.

  The WT has long held the rather baffling position that confession should not be to men (contra Catholic priests) and that JWs need to confess their sins to the elders. How they square that circle is a bit of a mystery, but their stance has not changed as you implied.

  https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5159427667656704/faithful-slave-urges-confession-latest-watchtower
  
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  45

  Britain Branch to Cease Printing Sooner Than Expected

  by The Searcher in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i've received the following news from a reliable and trusted source: .

  the demise of printing literature in the u.k. is being brought forward by one year - to march 2018. graphic design and printing support will go too.

  large numbers of "disposable" bethelites will now have to make their own way in the world, when their "mother" abandons them.

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  slimboyfat

  As I understand it, a lot of what passes for "real estate business" is simply riding the inflation of boom periods anyway. Making money long term from property is not easy. But if you get lucky during a boom it breeds overconfidence, as WT may be. When the WT sells its major property assets there's no guarantee they'll ever manage to recover anything like it. Free labour doesn't cover a slump or an asset sale during a particular phase of the cycle. Financially it appears WT is in serious trouble with no readily apparent solution.