TheOldHippie

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Posts by TheOldHippie

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  25

  Are the Watchtower numbers right for membership?

  by yalbmert99 in

  1. watchtower
  2. scandals

  according to what appeared in written newspapers and that we can add up, the real number of people who assisted the summer district assemblies in the province of quebec, canada is : 13 500.. .

  assembly at quebec city: 7000.

  1st assembly at sherbrooke : 3500.

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  TheOldHippie

  Exactly. You shouldn't make too much out of the numbers given for one province; people are a bit mobile these days. Adding the attendance for the country after all the conventions have been held, gives a better picture. Over here, total attendance is always higher than the average number of publishers. Some visit two conventions, but on the other hand some live on such remote places or are aged / have health problems and no not attend. If that roughly would even each other out, then a higher attendance than average publishers is what I "feel" to be correct by own observation, as relatives, interested, a neighbour or two also attend.

  As always, making worldwide conclusions based on a limited area or a limited time period is risky business. "Two youths committed suicide in my congregation = majority of JW youths commit suicide" .......... no no. "Three JWs in my area were admitted to mental hospital = most JWs are mentally ill" ....... no no. Extrapolation and intrapolation - risky business.
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  61

  Overpopulation in the "Paradise" Earth!

  by Leolaia in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  jw doctrine teaches that the 1,000 years of christ corresponds to "judgment day," and everyone who has not already been judged will be resurrected from the dead.

  the exceptions would be those who died during the flood, the destruction of sodom and gomorrah, and a few odd individuals.

  but that's only the people living today.

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  TheOldHippie

  The growth in the first hundreds of years after the Flood has always created a problem for me, since nations so soon afterwards existed also according to the Bible. Leo points out the problem excellently here.

  Just a quick note as to the problem of how many have ever live, I quote from Wikipedia (I know, I know, but it refers to the problems encountered in figuruing out the number):

  Number of humans who have ever lived

  Further information: Paleodemography

  Estimates of "the total number of people who have ever lived" published in the 2000s range approximately from 100 to 115 billion (1 E11).

  An estimate of the total number of people who have ever lived was prepared by Carl Haub of the Population Reference Bureau in 1995 and subsequently updated in 2002; the updated figure was approximately 106 billion. [ 96 ] [ 97 ] Haub characterized this figure as an estimate that required "selecting population sizes for different points from antiquity to the present and applying assumed birth rates to each period". [ 97 ] Given an estimated global population of 6.2 billion in 2002, it could be inferred that about 6% of all people who had ever existed were alive in 2002. [ 96 ]

  In the 1970s it was a popular belief that 75% of all the people who had ever lived were alive in the 1970s, which would have put the total number of people who ever lived as of the 1970s as less than the number of people alive today. This view was eventually debunked. [ 98 ]

  The number is difficult to estimate for the following reasons:

  • The set of specific characteristics that define a human is a matter of definition, and it is open to debate which members of early Homo sapiens and earlier or related species of Homo to include. See in this regard also Sorites paradox. Even if the scientific community reached wide consensus regarding which characteristics distinguished human beings, it would be nearly impossible to pinpoint the time of their first appearance to even the nearest millennium because the fossil record is simply too sparse. However, the limited size of population in early times compared to its recent size makes this source of uncertainty of limited importance.
  • Robust statistical data only exist for the last two or three centuries. Until the late 18th century, few governments had ever performed an accurate census. In many early attempts, such as Ancient Egypt and in the Persian Empire the focus was on counting merely a subset of the people for purposes of taxation or military service. [ 99 ] All claims of population sizes preceding the 18th century are estimates, and thus the margin of error for the total number of humans who have ever lived should be in the billions, or even tens of billions of people.
  • A critical item for the estimation is life expectancy. Using a figure of twenty years and the population estimates above, one can compute about fifty-eight billion. Using a figure of forty yields half of that. Life expectancy varies greatly when taking into account children who died within the first year of birth, a number very difficult to estimate for earlier times. Haub states that "life expectancy at birth probably averaged only about ten years for most of human history" [ 97 ] His estimates for infant mortality suggest that around 40% of those who have ever lived did not survive beyond one year.
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  16

  Does the August Awake! applaud illegal hiring of European JWs? Euro opinions sought.

  by Open mind in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  the august 2010 awake!

  magazine, (cover title) "jehovah's witnesses, who are they?

  ", seems to be a pr puff piece aimed primarily at a european audience.

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  TheOldHippie

  Two different things are mixed together here. Point one, in Europe as elsewhere, a person having a personally owned firm pretty much employs whom he wishes. A JW owns a firm, knows of another JW, asks him to start working in his firm, there is nothing illegal to that in Europe.

  What IS illegal, is for a business that puts an advertisement asking for work force, to state that only such and such a group of persons will be considered. It is not legal to ask for only men to apply, or women, or JWs, or atheists, or married, or whatever. The thing referred to in the mentioned article, probably is the Polish firm which did such a thing a couple of years ago. How the labour legislation in the Eastern European countries are, I do not know, but in the vast majority of European countries, it would not be allowed. But please note, that the article no way says such a thing is an approvable thing to do, it just states what a company did. As far as I recall, the Polish company had to abandon the atempt, because labour organisations protested, but I am not 100 % sure about that. Anyway, to sum it up, adverts as that are illegal in almost all countries here, but the article just what told what a company had done because of positive experiences with JWs in the work force.
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  48

  Just talked to a brother in the service department and he hung up on me!

  by life is to short in

  1. watchtower
  2. child-abuse

  ok so last sunday was my last meeting.

  i have been in contact with the service department over this problem with the child molesters in my hall, i have written many, many letters begging for help, i have gotten nothing for help from them, but to wait on jehovah and pray more study more, etc.

  so i want them to know that they they win they have weeded me out from the "truth" i am a bad seed from satan as i cannot abide by how we handle child molesters.

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  TheOldHippie

  Can someone direct me Flipper's story about rushing to the podium and telling there was an abuser in the KH? I am asking because that is what I am planning to do - the point is, a convicted refugee abuser who is NOT a JW has started showing fake interest in becoming a JW in order not to be expelled from the country, and when/if he turns up I am going to do exactly that - loudly warning the others. So please direct me to the story in question.
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  44

  DC 2010 Release - The Origin of Life and its many misquotes

  by Designer Stubble in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  looking up all the references is a lot of work - one of the reasons nobody normally verifies these, but trust the writers.

  as you will see, the writers are banking on this, but it is not a good thing to trust the wtbts writers.

  please find the bibliography worked out for quotes 38-51, covering the heading "what about human evolution".. interesting is that many quotes are from the [u]preface[/u] of books, where the authors honestly explain the difficulties and assumptions related to evolutionary science.. [b]what about human evolution?[/b].

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  TheOldHippie

  I have just finished reading Behe's "Darwin's Black Box" - excellent reading. I recommend it, it is technical at times but in a very entertaining and easy-to-understand way. As for the origin of life and its many molecular machines, Behe is one scientist who is often quoted by the WT, and the WT literature at times follows along Behe's lines (although Behe is concerned with the origin of life and not with later evolution, which he thinks might be more or less correct) - so why not run to Amazon and buy Behe, where you can get parallell ideas BUT without the quotes you claim to be flawed? Behe is one of the sources, one of the Intelligent Design Founding Fathers, so why not give it a try.
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  10

  America Never Even Joined The League Of Nations!

  by BluesBrother in

  1. watchtower
  2. beliefs

  my knowledge of modern history might be a little thin, gained largely from the books of the wts and the "outworking of prophecy", so humour me if this is common knowledge to everyone else.. the wts has identified the characters in revelation 13 as being 1) the two horned beast = anglo american power, and 2) an image of the beast = the league of nations and later on the u.n.o.

  but really it was only an image to the wild beast.. wt 1986 2/1 p6.

  they did this by getting the nations to make an image to the wild beast.

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  TheOldHippie

  It is not a lie, because it nowhere is stated that the USA joined. To the contrary, it is repetedly stated that they never joined, but that they nonetheless were one of the powers initiating it etc. So you would search in vain for a statement thay they were a member nation. And although it is some years ago that I had my history lessons in school, I know we were always taughts that the USA never joined, so it should come as a surprise to no-one.
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  7

  New Books: The Origin of Life & Was Life Created?

  by ForbiddenFruit in

  1. watchtower
  2. bible

  so family forced me into accepting the two new pro-creation books released at the convention.

  i haven't had a chance to read them properly yet, but i expect to be drilled to death by friends and family on how brilliant the book is.. anyway, i was wondering if anyone was working on a critical analysis?

  or could join me in putting together a list of flaws in the books?

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  TheOldHippie

  Books?

  They are 32-pages brochures. Not books.
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  7

  Costa Rica branch to be closed, sold. Anybody know about this??

  by monkeyman in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  just got word that the costa rican branch is being closed and the buildings sold.

  ive read some things here but cant remember why.. why?.

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  TheOldHippie

  Mexico.
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  34

  Elder tells me Armageddon could strike during Soccer World Cup closing ceremony.

  by african GB Member in

  1. jw
  2. experiences

  i could'nt believe my ears!.

  that's 11th of july 2010.

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  TheOldHippie

  that's 11th of July 2010

  African GB is making a false statement - in other parts of the world it is 12th of July. Why should the US timetable be one for the whole world to follow? Typical US imperialism. Paper tiger.
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  34

  Magazine Distribution--Your Area?

  by blondie in

  1. jw
  2. friends

  i found out that in a local congregation the service overseer has directed that magazines not be given by jws to:.

  a) inactive jws.

  b) return visits that are not coming to the meetings after 6 months.

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  TheOldHippie

  In Europe, there is no "new arrangement", magazines are delivered to publishers according to the number they have asked for, as has been done for years. And there is no change as to what persons they are delivered to. So either these "things" are a US thng, or they are a very local thing.