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(June 5, 2015 at 8:16 am)Tonus Wrote: Oddly enough, it's the opposite for me, which is funny because my lineage IS Spanish. Most people think I'm Jewish or Italian. Very few people have ever picked up that I am Puerto Rican.
As for how they find you, JWs keep a register of the homes they have visited, including the language spoken. That way you aren't being approached by JWs that don't speak your primary or preferred language. These registers are not always very well maintained, to the extent that we would occasionally get a visit from JWs even though we were JWs.
The thing is I'm not even Hispanic and they still find me even when I move. I don't mind them so much. It's a good way to keep my Spanish fresh. It just amazes me how they always find me.
(August 21, 2017 at 11:31 pm)KevinM1 Wrote: "I'm not a troll"
Religious Views: He gay
0/10
Hammy Wrote:and we also have a sheep on our bed underneath as well
(June 5, 2015 at 8:16 am)Tonus Wrote: Oddly enough, it's the opposite for me, which is funny because my lineage IS Spanish. Most people think I'm Jewish or Italian. Very few people have ever picked up that I am Puerto Rican.
As for how they find you, JWs keep a register of the homes they have visited, including the language spoken. That way you aren't being approached by JWs that don't speak your primary or preferred language. These registers are not always very well maintained, to the extent that we would occasionally get a visit from JWs even though we were JWs.
The thing is I'm not even Hispanic and they still find me even when I move. I don't mind them so much. It's a good way to keep my Spanish fresh. It just amazes me how they always find me.
Maybe because you're a saucy mamacita?
In every country and every age, the priest had been hostile to Liberty.
- Thomas Jefferson
(June 4, 2015 at 5:34 pm)Losty Wrote: How do the Spanish speaking jehovas witnesses always find me? Is there some sort of radar for people who speak Spanish?
Oddly enough, it's the opposite for me, which is funny because my lineage IS Spanish. Most people think I'm Jewish or Italian. Very few people have ever picked up that I am Puerto Rican.
As for how they find you, JWs keep a register of the homes they have visited, including the language spoken. That way you aren't being approached by JWs that don't speak your primary or preferred language. These registers are not always very well maintained, to the extent that we would occasionally get a visit from JWs even though we were JWs.
As for 8am visits, sweet jesus... I'm glad we never did that when I was a JW. We didn't even assemble to prepare to go out until 9:30 or so, and as far as I know they still do that around here. Not sure where you live, Becca, so it might be because of local hospitality. If we'd knocked on people's doors on Sunday at 8am in the Bronx, I'd probably have been shot a few times. Now I'm curious, since I'll be moving to the Ohio suburbs in a couple of months, when/if they will visit my home. As for waiting for people to approach, I have noticed that recently some JWs are setting up these little kiosk stands filled with literature, and they stand next to it. When I was an active JW, our version of street work (ahem) meant that we walked along and approached anyone we encountered.
The idea behind the door-to-door work is that JWs believe that the only path to salvation is to be a JW in good standing. It doesn't matter how good a person you are, if you're not in the club when god finally brings his wrath upon the world, you're going to die and stay dead. So for them there is a certain urgency in helping as many people get into the religion and become saved. The guilt that can come from 'losing' a loved one or friend to 'the world' is one example of the harm religion can do to people.
So basically JWs are on a mission to recruit new members in order to keep the cash flowing or else they will cease to exist as individuals.
Isn't that the foundation of every church and cult? The blessings flow from the top, but the cash flows upwards.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
(June 5, 2015 at 2:26 pm)Stimbo Wrote: Isn't that the foundation of every church and cult? The blessings flow from the top, but the cash flows upwards.
Ah... I love the stench of a pyramid scheme in the morning!
(June 5, 2015 at 11:09 am)Losty Wrote: The thing is I'm not even Hispanic and they still find me even when I move. I don't mind them so much. It's a good way to keep my Spanish fresh. It just amazes me how they always find me.
It might be because you're a saucy mama... oh, F&F covered that.
Wyrd of Gawd Wrote:So basically JWs are on a mission to recruit new members in order to keep the cash flowing or else they will cease to exist as individuals.
I'll simply point out that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society is a corporation. I can remember being in normal congregation meetings where "corporate business" was discussed, including the occasional motion that would be voted on by the congregation in our capacity as 'shareholders' of some kind. The votes were, as might be expected, unanimous, and I cannot ever recall any discussion on the motions. They were presented (by an elder), seconded (by an elder) and voted on by the congregation. Then we got on with our Bible lessons.
One thing you realize quickly if you read that link: the JW leadership left nothing to chance when it came to corporate control, to the extent of taking steps that seem at the very least to be unethical, if not outright illegal ("From 1908 Russell required the directors to write out resignations when they were appointed so Russell could dismiss them by simply filling in the date"). Incorporating seems to have been a way to protect the "business of religion," so to speak. With a membership numbering in the low millions, the corporation is estimated to be worth well over one billion dollars today. Their real estate holdings alone might be at least half of that value.
"Well, evolution is a theory. It is also a fact. And facts and theories are different things, not rungs in a hierarchy of increasing certainty. Facts are the world's data. Theories are structures of ideas that explain and interpret facts. Facts don't go away when scientists debate rival theories to explain them. Einstein's theory of gravitation replaced Newton's in this century, but apples didn't suspend themselves in midair, pending the outcome. And humans evolved from ape- like ancestors whether they did so by Darwin's proposed mechanism or by some other yet to be discovered."
(June 5, 2015 at 3:59 am)robvalue Wrote: I wrote in a little piece of paper "No cold callers please" and taped it under my door bell, because I was getting rather sick of being bothered in general. It seems to have worked, I've since been left in peace. If anyone does cold call, I'll just point to the piece of paper, flip them the bird and slam the door Nah not really. I'd be my normally polite self and say I'm not interested. Then I'd swear a lot when I'm back inside.
I'm also having a big problem understanding how knocking on my door is "waiting for them to come to you". Well, anytime you knock on someone's door you have to wait for them to come to you, right? But I'd consider it rather a loaded scenario since you just banged on their door.
Nic: you "seriously doubting" Becca is very strange. It brings up an interesting point though about scepticism, which I need to write on my website. Scepticism, when done properly, is usually applied according to both the importance and the likelihood of claims. This is a claim of relative unimportance to you, although the irritation is obviously important to Becca. The claim is not a particularly unlikely one, people can bang on doors at any time. You find it a little odd, sure. But you're taking the stance that you "seriously doubt" it. That's a lot of scepticism for a very small claim.
Now compare this to Christianity, and maybe this will benefit you. The claim that all the supernatural stuff in the bible happened, and Jesus existed and is God, and still exists, and is watching over us, and there are certain actions which lead to certain kinds of afterlives... is a claim of huge importance, and overwhelmingly unlikely when compared to what we know and have experienced. So this is at the absolute maximum on both accounts, so should require the full force of someone's scepticism. Given you doubt Becca's claim even though you have direct eyewitness and current information about it, wouldn't it be fair to say that you should doubt a whole lot more extraordinary claims in a 2000 year old book, backed by nothing but it's say so?
This is a genuine attempt to help you, as you've been asking for one. It's not meant to be a criticism, although I think repeatedly asserting how much you don't believe Becca was uncalled for.
I don't buy her claim because I have 20 plus years of experience going door to door and I have never met anyone that goes out that early. I am not saying it is impossible. I just don't buy it. Because humans remember things in a slanted way almost always. I am not even saying that if they showed up at 10am that it wouldn't still be annoying. I am on here looking for my own clarity. I can't change whether or not witnesses keep door knocking or not. So what is the point of berating me over the policy? All I can do is explain why witnesses do it. I know its hard to believe, but they genuinely want to share with people what they think could be a positive in their lives. I recommend taking 10 mins with a witness and having a respectful conversation. You'll remember that they're fellow humans, even if misguided. And maybe at the very least you could feel like you at least shook their faith
My impression regarding the urgency of the outreach has more to do with the high (compared to other schisms) turn over rate of the Jehovah Witness's members than anything else.
The granting of a pardon is an imputation of guilt, and the acceptance a confession of it.
June 6, 2015 at 1:06 am (This post was last modified: June 6, 2015 at 1:08 am by robvalue.)
Nic: Did you really just ignore my attempts to help you with your issue? Or are you giving it some thought? I tried to use a discussion that was going a bit sour to make a valid point about beliefs to try and help. But instead you're still focusing on trying to undermine Becca. I thought you wanted some help?
Plus, you still haven't addressed how knocking on someone's door is waiting for them to come to you. It's the exact opposite as far as I can see!
Feel free to send me a private message.
Please visit my website here! It's got lots of information about atheism/theism and support for new atheists.
Why should I or anyone not interested in what someone may think we could benefit from take ten minutes to discuss it if we don't have to? I can't speak for others, obviously, but I'm not in the business or the habit of shaking someone's faith. It's similar to why someone like Richard Dawkins refuses to give cretinists the attention they crave from a debate.
At the age of five, Skagra decided emphatically that God did not exist. This revelation tends to make most people in the universe who have it react in one of two ways - with relief or with despair. Only Skagra responded to it by thinking, 'Wait a second. That means there's a situation vacant.'
Nah not really. I'd be my normally polite self and say I'm not interested. Then I'd swear a lot when I'm back inside.
