I think it is meant to be literal for what it’s worth, although I’ve not got any good arguments for it handy. I think it corresponds to the “Lord’s day” in Rev 1.10, which many think means just “Sunday”, and I think is not exactly JW teaching either, but seems to make sense to me.
slimboyfat
JoinedPosts by slimboyfat
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14
Is the 1000 year reign literal?
by gavindlt into all those on this students on this forum, i would love to know what your view is?.
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33
Where’s the 2023 Service Report?
by slimboyfat inwhat’s keeping them?
this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.
maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….
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slimboyfat
They announced that the full report would be published in January when they posted the edited highlights on their news page a few weeks ago. The news items get deleted after a month or so, so I don’t think it’s there any more.
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33
Where’s the 2023 Service Report?
by slimboyfat inwhat’s keeping them?
this has got to be the latest it’s ever been.
maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers ….
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slimboyfat
What’s keeping them? This has got to be the latest it’s ever been.
Maybe it’s the last one they’ll ever publish too, after dropping reporting hours for publishers …
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3151
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)
by Simon inuh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.
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slimboyfat
He met God and God told him it was Kim Silvio’s fault. Sounds legit. 👍
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3151
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)
by Simon inuh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.
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slimboyfat
I don’t think it’s a silly question at all. I think there’s a lot of evidence that altered states of consciousness may give greater insight into the nature of reality than our everyday perception.
I’ve not watched the video, I’m just responding to the idea that chemically induced visions can be easily dismissed. I’ve not tried mushrooms or any other perception altering drugs either, so I don’t have experience, but I listen to those who have with open minded interest.
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3151
It's been a long 9 years Lloyd Evans / John Cedars (continued)
by Simon inuh oh, looks like the mega thread gave up the ghost, so while i investigate / fix it just continue the discussion here .... it's been a long 9 years lloyd evans / john cedars.
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slimboyfat
Oh Lordy here we go.
Has he decided on this as a way back?
I’m not in a hurry to watch it to find out.
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109
Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself
by TheScientist inthis topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
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slimboyfat
The point about the census data is that they show Watchtower figures give a conservative estimate of their membership whereas other groups such as the Mormons grossly inflate their numbers. It seems that the Mormon church counts practically everybody who was ever baptised as a member regardless of whether they still have any contact with the church. That’s why you end up with the church claiming over a million members in Brazil but less than 300,000 describing themselves as Mormons in the census. For JWs it’s the other way round because their own count is far fewer than the census figure.
On one hand Watchtower is at a disadvantage financially because they discourage members from getting an education and a career and they don’t collect a tithe. On the other hand they discourage members from having children and instruct them to cut off contact with children if they leave the religion. As a result a considerable number of JWs leave their assets to the organisation in their will. Former Bethelites have confirmed the organisation receives a lot of money this way, especially now the baby boomer generation is dying off who accumulated property assets during the postwar period. Watchtower is not as rich as the Mormon church but they are probably comfortable within their current needs.
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109
Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself
by TheScientist inthis topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
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slimboyfat
The Scientist
You are aware that JWs consistently number far higher in national censuses compared with their own statistics? This is in contrast with other religious groups.
As one example the 2010 census in Brazil showed that 1.4 million self-identified as JW. This is hundreds of thousands higher than the publisher figure given by Watchtower.
By contrast the same census found only 226,000 identified themselves as Mormons. This was far lower than the 1.17:million members claimed by the Mormon church.
Mormons exaggerated their numbers by over 400% whereas Watchtower underestimated JW numbers by more than 50% compared with the census figure of self-identified JWs.
This pattern is repeated across all countries that count religion in the census: far more describe themselves as Jehovah’s Witnesses than are claimed as publishers by Watchtower.
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109
Why disfellowship must be eliminated for the survival of the WT itself
by TheScientist inthis topic i digress about why the watchtower relaxing the rules of disfellowship is essential for its survival.
many things i'm going to say are not my ideas, some are, the point is, i'm condensing everything in a logical and concise way.. the first thing we have to keep in mind is that the wt's main objective in instituting disfellowship has always been not to lose members because of the damage that a dissident could do, or to avoid gaining new members because of the bad reputation of a confessed sinner in the his/her region.
in the end, the more active members, the more money to the coffers.. in this case of disfellowship due to apostasy, to avoid any spark, texts were sought out of context that even prohibited saying "hi".
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slimboyfat
Well as usual my views don’t seem to be particularly popular here lol.
But sorry, I do think it is faintly ridiculous to be talking about Watchtower battling for “survival” at this point, when compared with most other churches in western countries they are in rude health to put it mildly.
I went through a phase on this forum when I thought JWs were in real difficulty, especially financially, because of the statements they were making about cash flow, and because I personally knew people who had left, and the rest were all getting older.
https://www.jehovahs-witness.com/topic/6278706236489728/watchtower-organisation-all-over-bar-shouting
What changed between writing that thread and now? Two things. Firstly, I’ve since visited dozens of other churches and have witnesses first hand what real decline actually looks like. It is miles away, and much worse than any ‘decline’ at the KH. Secondly, despite everything I said in that thread, JWs have still managed to keep growing. At what point do you allow facts to alter your perception? Six years ago I thought JWs would start declining rapidly soon. Six years later they are more numerous than ever. It’s not what I expected but it is a fact.
Six year years ago when I made that thread, average publishers that year was 8,248,982. Now it’s 8,514,983. That up by quarter of a million. Compared to past growth it’s pretty poor, but clearly it’s not a decline, never mind anything like struggling for “survival”. Most other churches would be absolutely delighted with those numbers. In Britain the Methodist church for example loses around 4% of their membership annually. They have declined by a half in under 20 years. They are indeed struggling for “survival”; JWs are not.
Check out this website for some perspective on churches that are genuinely in decline.
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Is AI going to change the world?
by Reasonfirst inhad lunch with a friend, whose a lecturer in the accounting dept.
of one of australia's best universities.
he told me he expects to lose his job at some point in the next 5 years, as the accounting dept, will disappear, as all accounting will be done by ai programs, so why teach it.. if his fears are correct, that means that any profession that involves the mind, may one day face the same future.
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slimboyfat
If you can get past the terrible screechy voice I think this debate was excellent. The woman made many great points and the guy was utterly clueless. He got completely sidetracked by whether AI can be conscious (it can’t) and whether it will ever work the same way as a human brain (it won’t). It doesn’t need to be conscious or like a human brain in order to be dangerous, quite the reverse. If anything I think the woman wasn’t strident enough in laying out the dangers. Our situation is probably significantly worse than even she was arguing. Maybe she didn’t want to be too pessimistic for the audience.
https://www.youtube.com/live/1rnam1w8ztM?si=vMcvnYTU-_J81t5t