A fundamental platform of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, from which its fearsome prognostications are launched, is the inexorable deterioration of the World. The World is becoming a less and less hospitable place in which to live. It seems with news of every earthquake, every natural catastrophe, every epidemic, every atrocity, and every disaster manmade or otherwise, there is the inevitable shaking of the finger and stern proclamation, "See? Do you see what's happening? These are signs that the time is short!" It has been ever thus.
But is it? I remember back in the 70's reading dire WT predictions of imminent worldwide famine, the disintegration of law and order and the horrific unraveling of society, none of which happened. If the World is not actually spiraling down toward destruction, what does that do to the credibility of the WT platform? Is life in the world, in fact, not better today than it was at any other time in mankind's existence?
