I feel a little stupid asking this question as I don't for one millisecond believe there is any possibility of a future Paradise on Earth, but I'm trying to work out how the people who do believe it visualise it and expect it to be. I suppose it's pointless to expect believers to have rational answers about such an irrational concept, but I'm trying to understand their thinking.
(Being a complete newcomer to all things JW, I am learning a lot of fascinating stuff from this website. I came to this forum a short while ago for the answer to one question; my question was answered and has helped me with a friend who was getting involved with Jehovah's Witnesses and that should have been that, but I found the forum so interesting that I find I keep coming back! I have struggled with some of the JW jargon and abbreviations that regular posters use but am slowly getting there with it. (But I still don't know what is meant by a boasting session.) But the whole subject of this cult now has me hooked, just in an academic sense..... no chance of me being converted!)
I have just read 'You can live forever in Paradise Earth'. It has the style of illustrations used in children's fairytale books, the real issues are not mentioned and I was left with more questions than answers. I would be interested to hear from someone how the following points are dealt with by the faithful, if indeed they are even thought about.
As I understand it no one will die in paradise. I also gather that people will still live in families and have children, so it means couples will still have sex, (or will all children be virgin births?). But either way, after a certain length of time if no-one dies and sex continues, paradise will inevitably get over-crowded. How is that explained?
Will animals die? If not how will the world not be quickly overrun with rabbits or rats etc, in view of the fact that apparently all predators and carnivores will be eating straw and dust?
Lions will lie down with lambs so will the canine teeth of meat eaters disappear and their digestive processes change magically in a flash, or (dare I say it?), will their bodies gradually evolve to deal with their new diet?
I read that on Paradise Earth "A man's flesh will become fresher than in his youth" Job 33:25. There is a picture of two elderly people who have been transformed into attractive young people aged about 20. I f everyone is young in body they will presumably also have the hormones of young people, which would mean all adults would have reproductive capacity, and babies could be being born to people aged 5000+ years old! Your Great Grandparents or whatever could look the same age as you and you could babysit their child who would technically be your Great Grand Uncle. Genealogists would never cope with drawing up a family tree.
Also it would be so confusing for going on dates as a real 20 year old boy seeing a pretty girl he fancied could not be sure if she was actually hundreds of years older than him. Sex will presumably only happen within a marriage but it does stretch the imagination from the perspective of this world trying to picture people being on earth for say 10,000+ years but staying faithful to one person for all that time and for infinity beyond that!
(No more soap operas on TV then, as they revolve around infidelity and vices of every kind!)
Thinking of childbirth, presumably there will either have to be changes in a woman's physiology (oh no, not bigger hips!?) or a change in the size of the fetus at full term, as there will apparently be no more pain (Revelation 21:3 4). If childbirth was easy and painless, the birthrate would soar.
It goes beyond my imagination to picture a world where there is no sorrow or hurt, If life is even remotely like it is now, how are people not going to have accidents? Are they saying that noone will ever trip over or cut their finger or fall off a ladder or worse? Or are they saying you could lose a leg in an accident but it won't hurt?
Chapter 10 of the Paradise Earth book states that people will all live in comfortable homes and shows a picture of a big house with a large garden and perfect lawn. It also says "all will have pleasant work to do".
The pictures only show smiling happy people wandering through fields of flowers by beautiful lakes or rivers with waterfalls and unspoilt countryside in the background, but presumably lots of people will have to be mining for raw resources and working in factories to manufacture the building materials to make the houses, etc.
No one in the pictures is shown working at a sewage farm dealing with the waste from the houses. The people are all wearing nice clothes which must have been manufactured, their hair is neatly cut so someone must be working in a steel factory to produce the scissors to cut the hair.
None of the pictures in JW literature show cars, aeroplanes or trains; no one is shown sitting in an office or using a computer. How is society going to function? I assume it won't revert back to the level of technology known in bible days, as otherwise nice modern houses as shown in the book couldn't be built, but if people will still have the luxuries of modern life like fridges, electric lights, gas heating, cookers and clean tap water, then there will have to be universities set up to produce clever people who can design these things. So policy on education will have to change.
It seems there would still inevitably be a working class, a middle class and a ruling class. If people learn to completely eliminate their jealousy of others who have nicer jobs, or are content to live in a communist style system where all classes have the same priveleges and lifestyle, they will not be human in the sense that we understand the term today.
Jehovah is supposed to be going to provide the perfect climate for food to be grown, which means it will have to rain quite a lot, so I can't quite see how everything will be perfect. It will have to rain on someone's picnic.
I'm sure there are a million and one other illogicalities with the idea of a perfectly happy world and I have to say the idea of living forever in a world where everyone is obedient doesn't really tempt me even if it was possible!