slimboyfat

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Posts by slimboyfat

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  74

  The Watchtower's Real Crisis

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

  i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

  this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

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  slimboyfat

  Cessation of yearbooks is not a "non-happening", it shows an organisation in serious trouble.

  Seriously I do wonder, how much evidence would it take to convince you?
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  74

  The Watchtower's Real Crisis

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

  i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

  this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

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  slimboyfat

  Wow are you still a collapse denier? How much evidence will it take? They could sure use you on the (newly amalgamated for cost reasons) service/writing/teaching/propaganda committee at Watchtower. Comical Ali eat you heart out.

  Like I said above, it's intriguing that some former JWs seem to share with Watchtower's staunchest defenders an unshakable belief in the organisation's invincibility - despite all evidence to the contrary.
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  37

  Do They Still do Door-to-Door as Much as Before?

  by cofty in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  since the advent of the trolleys do the majority of jws still go door to door like we used to?.

  do they still have meetings for field service on sat mornings and sun afternoons where most head off to the local territory while one or two go to do trolley work or has the importance of door to door work reduced?.

  with the reduction of printing wts and awakes what will they offer at the doors?.

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  slimboyfat

  Logically they can't be doing as much door to door work as before. Because each congregation runs one or two carts for around 30 hours a week, two publishers on each. That's a lot of hours. And yet the overall hours reported has not increased by very much in recent years. So therefore that's a lot less hours spent on the doors.

  Cart witnessing has been an absolute disaster from start to finish, because it's totally ineffective for making converts and totally demoralising as a JW. On top of that it's got a lot of JWs out of the habit of regular door to door preaching, which they may never return to.

  It's just one small but significant part in the larger story of Watchtower's current crisis/collapse
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  74

  The Watchtower's Real Crisis

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

  i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

  this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

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  slimboyfat

  Yes the parallel with Plymouth Brethen is interesting: rejection of the world, inward looking, shunning former members, and now giving up or demoting the significance of proselytism. The major difference is the closed brethren reject the Internet totally, last I heard.
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  86

  JW Rumor: End of the Traveling Overseer

  by Edison Trent in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  a friend of mine has contacts to a family with several circuit overseers and special pioneers.

  they have good connections to bethel.. he told me that the latest rumor from bethel states that the cos should be abolished in their present form.

  they have also recently begun to take cos back to bethel.. over the same channel i have already heard of the car fleet program and that the dos should be abolished.. has anyone else already heard of it?

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  slimboyfat

  Maybe so. No news on this front so far anyway.

  Have you inside info or is that a guess stilla?
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  74

  The Watchtower's Real Crisis

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

  i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

  this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

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  slimboyfat

  If a business is changing direction it's normal/prudent to roll out the new business model before/during the process of cutting back the old operation. Otherwise you're in a limbo of expenditure with no revenue.

  In Watchtower's case they have abandoned publishing and replaced it with nothing. The idea that they have something up their sleeve is pure speculation. It also seems to rest on a curiously naive notion of Watchtower invincibility that some Watchtower critics oddly seem to share with Watchtower's staunchest supporters.

  Watchtower looks like they have run out of ideas and money. And sometimes what looks and sounds like a duck is in fact a duck. Watchtower is clearly in serious crisis. What more evidence do we need?

  That's crisis in terms of finances, leadership, ideas, credibility: everything all at once. And it looks like no gentle landing either!
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  74

  The Watchtower's Real Crisis

  by JeffT in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  when discussing the watchtowers financial problems, i've generally been of the opinion that they probably are not in a real financial crisis.

  i've come to believe that money may be something of an issue, but its wrapped up in a much larger problem.

  this came to me this morning when reading about the annual meeting.. i think the society's leadership is just plain out of ideas.

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  slimboyfat

  It's not either/or. They have run out of ideas and they have run out of money. The evidence is quite clear.

  I think they're cutting back on magazines, not to save money, but because nobody can think of anything to put in them.

  True, but they are also clearly extremely short of money and this is why they are not even printing the new content that they are still producing.

  For example they produced a new Bible stories book this year, with new pictures and some new/reworked content. Yet having produced this new book they didn't even hand out copies at the convention. It is download only, unless publishers make a special request, in which case a copy will be sent "when available". This is clearly an issue to do with the cost of printing, because the writing and editing had already been done.

  The fact that they've run out of ideas is demonstrated by the main "doctrinal" announcement of the meeting which was simply a return of the old "vindication of Jehovah's name", a teaching they were crazy to dump in the first place. And was only scrapped to keep Karl Klein happy, so the story goes.

  Running out of money may be connected to running out of ideas in another important way. It's a well known facet of psychology that material difficulty adversely affects cognitive and creative abilities. In other words the stress of money trouble is probably occupying so much of their thoughts that it's difficult to focus on other things, such as producing coherent and interesting content for their literature.
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  25

  The upcoming protest at Warwick on November 5th

  by UnshackleTheChains in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  hey all.. just saw this video about the upcoming protest at warwick on november 5th.

  it looks like some momentum is building up to it.

  but what i really want to know is will it have much impact?

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  slimboyfat

  Is Tuesday still around? He was the guy who started this I believe. way back in 2009 or something.
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  33

  For ELDERS: Kingdom Ministry School for the 2018 Service Year (Picture)

  by pixel in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  i know wifibandit will post the pdf soon, this is just a snack for you guys and girls.... .

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  slimboyfat

  1. Ministerial Servants are not allowed to see the program for elders. (This is so important it is bold)

  2. Any elders who receive the program early should not discuss the information with other elders.

  Seriously, what's wrong with these people?
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  11

  Are We In A Computer Simulation?

  by Brokeback Watchtower in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  elon musk believes we are and he's a pretty smart guy that runs spacex, a lot black hole physics may seem to present the 3 dimentional space as a hologram of a 2 dimentional sphere.. i think this is open for serious debate.

  what are the pros and cons?.

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  slimboyfat

  Unless it's a technical question that we can't best answer for ourselves.

  We can't understand everything or come to our own conclusions about every topic. If I want to know the best way to build a bridge, make a cake, draw up a contract, treat a fracture, or whatever else it is probably best to rely on expert advice. In principle I could study engineering, cooking, law, medicine and so on myself, to the best of my ability, and find the best possible answers myself. But at a certain point (very quickly in fact) it becomes far too much. We simply need to rely on expert opinion to exist in the modern world.

  Some seem to regard philosophy as exempt from this principle. As if expertise doesn't or shouldn't carry the same authority in this area as it does in say engineering or law or academic subjects like physics or biology. That our opinion is as good as a philosophy professor. Dawkins seems to have this view of philosophy, which is quite odd when you think about it. He wouldn't accept that someone who hasn't studied biology has views on evolution that are as valid as his own. Yet he thinks that his own views on philosophy deserve a hearing. He can only do this by denigrating the entire discipline he is engaging with.

  To make a long story short, I am perfectly open to the possibility that a philosopher or a computer scientist may have insights into the nature of reality that I am not able to grasp because I do not have their training. In principle I could scrutinise their reasoning down to the basics, but this would be a very lengthy undertaking and may require a lifetime of study. Truly understanding something is not the same as simply following an argument closely. Because understanding requires huge background knowledge of various subjects, not simply acquaintance with the grammar and select vocabulary or a topic.

  I think it is reasonable to defer to a "smart" person. In fact it's a key skill to learn when to defer to the knowledge of others and working out who is expert and who is not. We all made the mistake of thinking JW leaders were experts on the Bible, life and everything. It doesn't mean that we shouldn't defer to anyone about such matters. It means we should be more discriminating about who we defer to.