slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  18

  Gaslighting

  by mann377 in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  ever heard of it?

  i have but never realized the full meaning.

  this is the tactic the wtbs uses to control people.

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  slimboyfat

  Definitely!

  "Did we say 1975? No you got carried away!"

  2015: "don't approach the public when Witnessing on the carts."

  2017: "brothers you are being too passive when witnessing on the carts!"

  Gaslighting
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  40

  Did Jesus pre exist? Yes or no?

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  when i first became a witness, i always found the teaching about jesus being the arch angel michael hard to swallow.

  i did however believe that jesus pre existed as a master worker alongside god (the first of his creation).. but now everything is brought into question having watched anthony buzzard explain why jesus could not have pre existed as it is impossible to pre exist yourself.

  also the fact that it all sounds contradictory to suggest, he was already alive millions of years before he was transferred to mary's womb to be born as a human - the son of man?.

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  slimboyfat

  Antony Buzzard, what a funny fellow. He's like a throwback to the nineteenth century interlocutors of Russell.

  I take it you've seen the video of him arguing with two JWs.

  https://youtu.be/2XPo43BgdBM
  
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  17

  "Apostate" brother gives talk in Kingdom Hall and gets removed

  by StoneWall in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  this guy has to have the most courage of anyone i've ever seen or balls the size of basketballs.he actually gives a good talk and has tidbits scattered about throughout his public talk with hints,suggestions,innuendos of the wt organization.i never want to go in another kingdom hall again in my life but would have made an exception just to be in this audience.

  lolnotice what's going on in the audience when they realize somethings up.https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hqqt0y1peuu.

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  slimboyfat

  It's very good and amusing, but just how many times is this video going to be posted? I'm sure I've seen four threads now, and maybe I missed others.

  As someone commented on another thread, whatever elder mistakenly invited him as speaker probably got in serious trouble. Maybe even removed?
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  28

  When do you think the 7 clowns will add more members to the exclusive GB club ?

  by Chook in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  will they draw a new name out of a hat or do a kiss test i don't know..

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  slimboyfat

  Yes careful I agree "helper" status isn't a good stepping stone to GB.

  I was thinking of this comment:

  Go through the list of "helpers"....

  I was wondering if such a list exists as it would be interesting in itself.
  
  
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  28

  When do you think the 7 clowns will add more members to the exclusive GB club ?

  by Chook in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  will they draw a new name out of a hat or do a kiss test i don't know..

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  slimboyfat

  Is there a public list of helpers?
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  149

  why jw's commit suicide?

  by notalone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.

  my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.

  i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.

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  slimboyfat

  Ruby I know there is evidence that religious affiliation in general is good for mental health. I was asking about JWs in particular. I have access to academic journals so please cite away. Apart from a number of discredited older studies on JWs (Spencer, Montague, Bergman) the one by JW Rolf Furuli mentioned by Earnest is the only recent one I know. If there are more I'd like to see. I keep a database of all academic works on JWs as they are published.
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  149

  why jw's commit suicide?

  by notalone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.

  my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.

  i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.

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  slimboyfat

  What's the evidence for saying the suicide rate is lower among JWs?

  I don't think there is reliable data on the issue. In fact the WT discourages and obstructs collecting such data, which is perhaps indicative.
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  149

  why jw's commit suicide?

  by notalone in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  we all know the rate of suicide is high among jw's.

  my question is this- was there some subliminal messages that encourage this.

  i was a born in and my entire life i would have these thoughts that could come out of nowhere,"kill yourself.

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  slimboyfat

  I don't know about subliminal messages, but I remember a lot of pretty brutal and depressing WT study topics in the 1990s. In particular there was a WT about the "avenger of blood" and how you need to run to the "city of refuge" in order to be safe. Then all the Bible stories about putting pegs through people's heads, pulling down pillars and crushing people, and throwing Jezebel to be eaten by dogs and so on. Brutal stuff when you think about it, all focussing on death by various means, And in the same WT we were told not to watch worldly movies because they're too violent.
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  13

  Aust Census: JW's and Divorce Rates

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this post is actually in answer to a question i got from jwfacts.

  i think the issue was also raised on a recent thread.. first, some data from the 2011 and 2016 censuses:.

  (a) 1,751,733 (7.5% of population) reported being in a de-facto couple on census night, but .

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  slimboyfat

  Yes point taken about mixed marriage divorces counting, and about comparability with other religions.

  With statistics from censuses in general, there are lots of complicating factors to consider. When we see graphs, and tables of numbers, we may naturally tend think that the production of the data was as reliable, accurate and uniform as the reassuringly organised method of its display. Unfortunately there is lots of room for skewed data and misleading comparisons to arise.

  For example:

  1. The format of the census may differ from year to year, including different options, in different orders, and with different prompts. Such apparently small changes can significantly impact results.

  2. Religious organisations may encourage identification with their church during a census. For example I read a report that the Mormon church was concerned about the low numbers identifying as Mormon in South American censuses. So they initiatiated a campaign to contact and encourage all inactive Mormons to identify as Mormons in the next census. This no doubt impacts results where such campaigns are conducted. Needless to say not all churches carry out such campaigns, so are we really comparing like with like?

  3. Censuses differ hugely from country to country in scope and intent. The UK census is pretty useless at counting JWs because the British census invites all Chrsitan denominations to identify simply as "Christian". Those JWs who wrote "Jehovah's Witness" in the "other" box numbered around 70,000 in 2001. On the one hand that's a lot fewer than the 130,000 publishers JWs claimed in Britain. But on the other hand those JWs had resisted hints in the census form to pick "Christian" as a catch all term. In fact JW s were the biggest "write in" category of "other religion" in the UK. Which may be interpreted as an impressive display of distinctiveness. But ultimately, UK census results are pretty useless for comparing numbers of JWs with other groups or over time.

  There's a good discussion of the problem of the "other" category in the UK census here:

  http://www.brin.ac.uk/2012/census-2011-any-other-religion/

  It's interesting that the author of that page assumed that the JW "write in" response was "orchestrated". I can see why he would assume it must have been, because it's such a large number, and "Christian" would appear to be an adequate response for JWs to most outsiders. But I don't recall any particular instruction from WT about how to fill in the census. And I think people familiar with JWs and how they think realise that often JWs don't need to be told to act distinctly in such situations. For a significant proportion of JWs it comes naturally to insist on a separate identity, even when being encouraged to identify as "Christian": for about 70,000 of them in the UK in 2001, to be exact.
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  13

  Aust Census: JW's and Divorce Rates

  by shepherdless in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  this post is actually in answer to a question i got from jwfacts.

  i think the issue was also raised on a recent thread.. first, some data from the 2011 and 2016 censuses:.

  (a) 1,751,733 (7.5% of population) reported being in a de-facto couple on census night, but .

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  slimboyfat

  As I understand it the data do not tell us anything directly about the propensity of JW couples to divorce, because it doesn't tell us 1) if the person divorced while a JW or 2) whether both partners were JWs. It could be that divorcees join JWs in higher proportion. And it could be that many JWs divorce non-JW partners.

  In my observation many JW marriages end when one person (usually the man) stops being a JW and the woman continues.