The 'Worse and Worse' Fallacy - Recent Items

by metatron 9 Replies latest jw friends

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  metatron

  In the November 24 "The Week", you can learn that forests aren't necessarily decreasing. ( pg 10)

  "In a surprizing new study, scientists have concluded that a growing number of countries are reversing the trend toward destruction of their

  forests.... 'It seems possible that we could reverse a global trend that many people thought irreversible', said study author Pekka Kauppi of the

  University of Helsinki". ( Actually, this makes enormous sense to me because the transition from agricultural to industrial economies

  leaves huge areas unfarmed that return to a natural state. Productivity means you don't need "the north 40 acres" anymore. If you doubt this,

  take a drive thru any part of New England and take note of the old abandoned farm areas)

  And the world's panda population is staging a comeback ( also page 10)

  A female relative of mine recently gave birth by way of a C - section. Ask yourself, if this pregnancy took place a couple hundred years

  ago, how would it likely have ended? A dead mother and infant - because the baby couldn't come out normally? Is that "worse and

  worse"?

  Oh, and renowned Cardiologist William Gruss has strongly endorsed resveratrol supplements to ward off disease. Resveratrol is NOW

  EMERGING as the closest thing we have to a true anti-aging pill. Biotech firms are in a rush to discover how to stop or reverse the aging

  process. It's just a matter of time. Average lifespans in Japan and the US are the highest they've ever been. Is that "worse and worse",

  Brother Witness?

  metatron
• 

  BabaYaga

  I agree completely. Heaven knows I would have been burnt at the stake if I were born in another century. Ha!
  
  Yes the whole "look how HORRIBLE the world is! Armageddon, Armageddon!!!" bit is tiresome, to say the least.
  
  Baba.
• 

  fullofdoubtnow

  But met, these are "critical times, hard to deal with", and the "end " is near, or so the jws keep telling us...

  Seriously, I doubt if any of that article will make it into the watchtower or awake, and I'd bet the org don't want any jws to read it. It might give them a few ideas...
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  cyrus

  just one thing guysjust because the old virgins have been getting it wrong 4 over 100 years about the big A doesnt mean it aint going to happen just we dont know if or when god is not one to be knocked OH OK just a little bit tho
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  crazyblondeb

  Heaven knows I would have been burnt at the stake if I were born in another century.

  I feel ya!! My JW mom would love for that to happen!

  blessed be-shelley
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  Carmel

  This is the most "Radiant Century" by many standards. Old shiboliths in religion, ethics, politics and even science are being shattered to be replaced by what is utilitarian, ethical, more just and in line with reason and good will. Certainly the opposite gets the headlines, but virtually every discipline is undergoing transformation. We are one of most richly blessed generations being able to witness monumental evolutions in human affairs.

  Much yet to accomplish, but the "new world order" is crystalizing and no one can stop its progress.

  carmel
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  daniel-p

  It's hard to say "critical times hard to deal with are here" when humans live 20 to 30 years more than they did a thousand years ago - or even a hundred years ago.
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  bigmouth

  add to this that wars have been fewer and less deadly over the last hundred years despite the WT's glib claims. I think they've got the message about earthquakes being no more common than they ever were though. I don't see rash claims for that anymore.
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  truthsetsonefree

  A friend were just talking about how so many college students are scrapping by, not much money, struggling to make ends meet. And then I thought: Education used to be FOR THE WEALTHY! Isn't it amazing that so many average people are getting an education that a hundred years ago they could only have dreamed of.

  tsof
• 

  Amazing

  HI Metatron,

  In the last 100 years, the United States has doubled its tree population. We have done this because the woodworking industry long ago saw the need to plant more trees than they cut down. What they did, however, was change the ecology from one type of tree to another. But that is okay.

  You made this point:

  ( Actually, this makes enormous sense to me because the transition from agricultural to industrial economies leaves huge areas unfarmed that return to a natural state. Productivity means you don't need "the north 40 acres" anymore. If you doubt this, take a drive thru any part of New England and take note of the old abandoned farm areas)

  This is not accurate, though it may be on a local scale in New England. Farming in the UNited States is at an all time high. It is just that farms have moved. For example, many tens of thousands acres in S. California, where I grew up, many of which were large orange groves, have all been replaced by houses not trees. Instead these farms now occupy a once total dessert between San Fernando and San Jose along the I-5 corridor. All that area for 480 miles by 100 miles wide was nothing but dessert. It is all now green, irrigated, and lush with agricultural products. The region is far larger in the argi-business than the former area to the south that is now all houses and strip centers.

  Industrialization does not mean fewer farms. There are more people on earth than ever before. When I was growing up, the United States was just 140 million, and now it is 300 million people. We have more farms to feed more people. The farms, are no longer smaller acre type owned by a single family, but today are large corporate farms growing huge amounts of agri-products. The entire world itself went from 2 billion to well over 6 million today. If anything, we will see an explosion of farming in large unused land areas in the near future. We have the technology to convert the giant Sahara Dessert into one big lush farm to feed the world.

  Jim Whitney