FOR SALE: Gloom, Doom, and Persecution.

by Coded Logic 12 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  Coded Logic

  “Religion is the sigh of the oppressed creature - it is the spirit of a spiritless situation.”

  It's really sad that JWs only ever see the bad things in the world and are either unable or unwilling to acknowledge that now is the safest and most prosperous time in all of human history to have ever lived. Within the last hundred years we have gone from the Wright Brothers first flight, to setting foot on the moon, to Curiosity exploring another world. The average life expectancy has increased from 42 years to a ripe old age of 79 (and still rising 3 years for every decade of progress). Global malnutrition rates have plummeted from over 50% down to less than 15%. And less people die every year from suicide, murders, and war combined (2.8% of annual deaths) than from strokes (9.66% of annual deaths). If JWs don’t think this is progress for a better world then let me ask the question; what has the WTBTS done for humanity over the past 100 years?
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  yadda yadda 2

  Unfortunately, the typical JW apologist has seemingly solid rebuttals to this:

  • World still capable of self-destruction many times over through nuclear weapons.
  • Man's ruining the climate. Environmental disasters such as floods, tsunamis, cyclones appear on the rise.
  • War lessening but still millions of refugees; Islamic militancy and terrorism on the rise.
  • Economic disasters and suffering (eg, Greece) and signs of impending economic collapse.
  • Polio, etc, replaced by AIDS, etc.
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  stuckinarut2

  Good points coded!

  Ill keep these in mind for future conversations!
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  Coded Logic

  • World still capable of self-destruction many times over through nuclear weapons.

  We went from 70,000 nuclear weapons at the height of the cold war in the late 1980s to around 16,000 today. Granted, still way too many but the number keeps being reduced. And, in occordance with the New START treaty, another 6,000 are schedualed to be dismantled by 2018. Pretty soon we'll be under the 10,000 bar

  Man's ruining the climate.

  How amazing it would have been in Matthew 24 had said something along the lines of "and man's fires upon the earth shall pollute the air and cause great storms and angry seas."

  Oh well, the Bible never seems to miss an opportunity - to miss an opportunity.

  War lessening but still millions of refugees; Islamic militancy and terrorism on the rise.

  Hmm, it doesn't seem like anyone is saying "Peace and security" right now. In fact, it sure seems like everyones saying the opposite.

  Economic disasters and suffering (eg, Greece) and signs of impending economic collapse.

  Com'on Matthew! How did you not see this comming?

  Polio, etc, replaced by AIDS, etc.

  What?! Desieses? You mean those things that have been around since the begining of time are going to still exist in our day? Only a true profit of God could possilby have fortold such a thing!
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  LisaRose

  JWs are invested in the world being a horrible place that is on a path to destruction, as it validates their belief that mankind is helpless without God's help and that he will soon step in and fix things.
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  MissFit

  Great points.
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  Apognophos

  Coded Logic, after yadda yadda's post, you moved your goalpost from talking about the world getting better to whether the Bible predicted the world situation.
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  Coded Logic

  I'm not moving the goal post at all. Rather, it is the JWs that move the goal post. When the predictions of Matthew 24 aren't fullfilled they try to point to other things in the world that are bad as though that is part of prophecy.

  No ones claiming the world is perfect. But, by every metric of human well being, it is getting better. People are better fed, have access to cleaner water, to better medicine, are better educated, have access to more resources, are less likely to die a violent death, are better able to support their families, have more free time to pursue their goals, ect. than in any time in human history. The average individual today lives a better life today than a king did a thousand years ago. But if you're just going to point out the bad things and completely ignore the good things you're not going to be able to see that.
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  Apognophos

  You didn't address yadda yadda's points fairly, though, except for the one about nuclear weapons. Your other responses were oblique to yadda's point; he was not saying that Witnesses say those specific things were foretold, but simply that Witnesses point out that these are ongoing problems in the world.

  I'm not taking sides here, but I think you need to keep in mind that we all live in the comfy first world. If we lived in some others areas, things would not seem to be improving at all. Lots of countries are being either torn into smaller ones by tribal/sectarian conflicts, being menaced by larger neighboring countries, or still mired in diseases that are not a problem in the first world. Humanity is not moving forward in lock-step; some have moved forward, and some seem to be walking backward.
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  DesirousOfChange

  FOR SALE: Gloom, Doom, and Persecution.

  Same old shit they been selling for over 100 years!

  SSDD -- Same Shit, Different Day

  

  Life is good!

  Doc