#1 protein functional redundancy comparing the sequences of amino acids in ubiquitous proteins confirms the relationship between all living things..
#2 dna functional redundancy comparison of the dna that codes for the amino acids of ubiquitous proteins predicts the tree of life with an astonishing degree of accuracy..
#3 ervs endogenous retroviruses that infected our ancestors are found in the same place of the genome of our closest primate cousins..
I don't think evolution is a fact.
"Men landed on the moon in 1969" is a fact.
Evolution is more complicated than a fact. It is a complex combination of many facts woven into a story to explain life and its variety in scientific terms. It's subject to change in a way comparable to other stories, whereas some singular facts are more static.
Evolution is a compelling story, but don't eliminate the possibility of surprises and revision.
on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.
data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.
finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.
The numbers in 2016 could have been worse actually, when you consider it was probably at the height of the Australia Royal Commision coverage, plus all the cutbacks and closures being announced from WT headquarters. I find the Canadian data more startling as it shows significant, sustained decline.
It can't be long until even WT statistics begin to show sustained declining publisher and congregation numbers. But will they continue publishing the numbers when decline sets in?
on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.
data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.
finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.
And me in 2001 in Britain in fact!
Although strangely enough I reverted to describing myself as JW in 2011.
"We must avoid..."
I don't recall language as demanding as that before. It's as if the WT has given up trying to convince its readers by force of argument and is simply issuing commands instead.
on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.
data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.
finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.
Canadian figures for comparison:
1991 - 168,000 (census)
2001 - 154,750 (census)
2011 - 137.775 (census)
I don't have the yearbook numbers handy but I think it shows a small increase in publishers over the same period.
Sources:
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jehovahs-witnesses/
on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.
data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.
finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.
To complicate matters further: it's also possible that there are a few JWs who are counted as publishers because they submit reports but who, for one reason or another, don't describe themselves as JWs on the census. This might be because they don't want to identify themselves as JWs to the authorities for paranoid reasons, or more commonly because they don't believe in JWs any more and only adhere for social reasons. This may not be a very large group but is probably growing in number, so may to a small extent explain the falling census numbers relative to publisher numbers. JWs "voting with their census statement" as it were.
on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.
data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.
finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.
What would be really fascinating would be an age profile of JWs from the latest data if possible. I predict that the average age of JWs is climbing rapidly.
on threads about 8 or 9 months ago, i put up some detailed data from the 2011 and 2006 australian censuses.
data from the 2016 census is becoming available in stages, and i mentioned recently that i would do an update.
finally, as of about today, some data of interest is available, and i have started to look at this, but it is time consuming, and i am time-poor.. anyway, the first search i have conducted is just a simple breakdown of the number of people describing themselves as jw's.
Thanks shepherdless. I'm not sure why you found the results surprising. I would have expected a decrease. The census results in Canada display a similar pattern. Two main things stand out when comparing census results with yearbook figures: 1) more people claim to be JWs in census returns than are counted as publishers in the yearbook (this is due to inactive JWs as well as children being counted in the census but not in the yearbook) and 2) the trend in census returns in Canada and elsewhere shows greater signs of decline than yearbook figures.
What I think is happening is Australia, Canada and elsewhere is quite simple. In recent years the WT has squeezed extra publisher numbers by encouraging reporting time and relaxing the minimum to 15 minutes for old JWs. At the same time the pool of inactive JWs who still identify as JWs on census forms has reduced because former JWs now have less goodwill toward the organisation than they did in previous decades. This is because of 1) information and ex-JW community on the Internet 2) media stories about JW abuse 3) the Australian Royal commission 4) former members more commonly pursuing education and intellectual life outside organisation.
i wonder if jws are currently undergoing a more significant transformation than generally appreciated.
and i wonder if the drivers for that change are a combination of legal, economic, and technological factors.
legal challenges changed jws stance of whether they are a "religion" with "ministers", in the 1950s, and stopped them charging for the literature in the 1990s.
Incidentally I "like" the comments of other posters on this and the other thread. For some reason my "like" button isn't working. I hear it's the same for some other posters.
i wonder if jws are currently undergoing a more significant transformation than generally appreciated.
and i wonder if the drivers for that change are a combination of legal, economic, and technological factors.
legal challenges changed jws stance of whether they are a "religion" with "ministers", in the 1950s, and stopped them charging for the literature in the 1990s.
shepherdless I agree a lot with what you say but I explain where I possibly differ on this thread:
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/5134538567057408/books-dying-out-this-reason-wt-turning-tablets
Specifically:
Watchtower had an advantage over other fundamentalist Christians in that it had a highly successful business model based on its publishing business.
Totally agree.
Technology has destroyed that business, and now Watchtower now depends solely on donations from its own adherents.
No, technology didn't destroy their business. Their decision to drop charges for the literature in 1990 destroyed their business. It was an unforced error. There is no particular reason why they couldn't still be making good profits from book and magazine publishing to this day. They'd have to pay taxes perhaps, but they'd still be making a profit.
Technology didn't destroy their business, their own stubbornness and refusal to pay taxes destroyed their publishing empire.
Rather, technology has allowed the WT to move out of publishing and into tablets and downloads in an attempt to save their financial situation, as a result of their publishing business already having failed.
