Did you ever actually believe the JW fantasy version of "Paradise"?

Darth Fader The Sequel

I am sure this topic has probably been discussed many times before but,......... I would like reassurance that I am not the only one who gagged every time I heard a JW pontificating on their fantasy version of what "Paradise" will be like. Particularly when it comes to the animals. More specifically, that the animals will all become vegetarians. Lions will graze on grass with antelope. Eagles will be using their talons to catch ripe fruit. Sharks will presumably begin eating seaweed and be very careful not to accidentally eat a seaweed crab or water insect in the process. Not only is this an utterly preposterous line of logic, it is totally unnecessary for Jehovah to change every single species on the planet and create an entirely new ecosystem simply to satisfy the moronic assumptions of some idiot JW's who cannot emotionally handle the idea that there are predators and prey in this world and no matter how hard they try to make figurative scriptures out to be literal, this one ain't happening!!

I once had an older elder, having been a "big wig" elder for many decades, after a book study tell me in no uncertain terms that not only will humans live forever in paradise but also Jehovah will make it so that none of the animals will ever die either. I AM NOT KIDDING!!!! He said it. I graciously asked him to reiterate it hoping he had misspoken. He said it again. I began to politely debate him. He got angry.

Another paradise assumption that I have heard several times over the years in Jdub-land: "The angels will prevent us from injuring ourselves in paradise."

Still Totally ADD

DFTS I hate to say it but yes I did. Being a born in that was all I knew and I was taught never to questioned the Wt. It was not until many years later did I start looking at things in a new light. LOL Still Totally ADD

marmot

Sure did...when I was six.

I distinctly remember telling one of my schoolyard friends that he would be able to ride an alligator to school in paradise.

Darth Fader The Sequel

STADD- no shame in that. Well, ok, maybe there is a little shame. But hey! We all did it. ;-) I believed some of this paradise folklore when I was a kid. But as I became a teenager and learned a lot about nature and ecology I quickly realized just how lame this whole concept was.

Darth Fader The Sequel

Marmot- did you not consider the amount of chaffing that the poor kid would get to his "taint" from riding an alligator for that long? That is unless, of course, in the paradise the alligator's skin becomes soft like a Nerf Ball.

OneEyedJoe

Yeah, there's TONs of holes in the paradise logic. I stopped asking my parents about it when I was about 11 or 12, as I realized that the answer was always basically a variation of "with god all things are possible" or "it's not for us to know at this time."

Obviously there's a problem with predators. They couldn't survive on a vegetarian lifestyle without significant help from humans because their digestive system is not physically large enough for them to consume enough grass or whatever to survive. Just compare the stomach of a cow and a cheetah to get the point. Humans' entire job would be processing food into a higher nutritional density form for the predators to survive on. That's all there'd be time to do.

Every time I ate a steak I thought to myself "I'm not sure if I could be happy in paradise as a vegetarian." Of course that's one of the questions I asked before I wised up, and at the time "jehovah will take away our desire to eat meat" satisfied my 10yr old brain, but as an adult I couldn't help but wonder how much of my personality would have to be lobotomized for me to be happy in this "paradise."

The accidental injury thing always bothered me too. I mean we're supposedly going to be 10x smarter since the JWs bought into the myth that we only use 10% of our brains, but that doesn't mean we're never going to accidentally hit our thumb with a hammer while building our new house.

Speaking of construction, I'm pretty sure I'm not cut out for building my own house, and I definitely wouldn't enjoy that type of work over the technical career that I have now. I guess that's just another target for Jehovah the great lobotomizer.

redvip2000

it is totally unnecessary for Jehovah to change every single species on the planet and create an entirely new ecosystem simply to satisfy the moronic assumptions of some idiot JW's who cannot emotionally handle the idea that there are predators and prey in this world and no matter how hard they try to make figurative scriptures out to be literal, this one ain't happening!!

One of things that never made at sense to me when i was in... How is the animal population going to be controlled? Right now, there is a food chain that keeps an ecosystem balanced. Predations helps maintain animal population at a manageable and reasonable level. What happens once this stops?

Vidiot

OneEyedJoe - "...as an adult I couldn't help but wonder how much of my personality would have to be lobotomized for me to be happy in this 'paradise'."

Short answer; pretty much all of it.

I actually got kinda depressed when I finally admitted that to myself while still in.

RichardHaley

My dad was explaining how all the animals would be in peace and not eat each other in the pardise to my little brother (he was 7 or 8). No killing or death. My little brother looked at him and asked "what are the buzzards going to eat?" My dad was speachless at first then came the pat answer, "will have to wait on J and see." lol

James Brown

I was born in and that is what I knew and was taught.

The other children were taught and believed they were going to heaven.

There were no atheist that I knew of back in the 50's.

I'm sure there were, but it was a world before the information age.

I did start to doubt all things Jehovahs witness on January 1976 and from that date on

the house of cards came cascading down.

Did you ever actually believe the JW fantasy version of "Paradise"?

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