All right, some (or most) of you may already know this, but I just found out and was unable to find a topic that was talking about it... so I decided to create one!
Everything started with this quote:
*** g77 2/22 p. 11 ?There Will Be Great Earthquakes? ***
Interestingly, for a period of 1,059 years (856 to 1914 C.E.), reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes, with 1,972,952 fatalities. But compare that with the accompanying partial list citing 43 instances of earthquakes, in which 1,579,209 persons died during just the 62 years from 1915 to 1976 C.E.
About 2 years later, we could read this:
*** w79 6/15 p. 11 Insight on the News ***
Discussing recent earthquakes, the Italian journal ?II Piccolo? observed: ?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show. In fact, during a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However, if we compare this figure to the partially complete list of recent disasters, we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978.?
If you compare what "Il Piccolo" said with what was quoted in the 1977 Awake, it seems pretty clear that someone is copying on the other... But who wrote this statement first? If it is the WTBS, then this does not look very good, as they would be using their own statements to give weight to their arguments. The following article gives us the answer:
*** w83 5/15 p. 6 Earthquakes?A Sign of the End? ***
In the Italian journal Il Piccolo, of October 8, 1978, Geo Malagoli observed:
?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show. In fact, during a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However, [in] recent disasters, we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978. This dramatic increase further goes to emphasize another accepted fact?our generation is an unfortunate one in many ways.?
So this is proof that the WTBS used this statement first (in 1977) and that the Geo Malagoli from the "Il Piccolo" newspaper used it after. Could it be a simple human error from the writing department? Maybe. If it was, I was unable to find an "errata" in any of the subsequent litterature...
The WTBS used "Il Piccolo" as a reference a total of 8 times in the following years... Here they are in chronological order:
*** w79 6/15 p. 11 Insight on the News ***
Discussing recent earthquakes, the Italian journal ?II Piccolo? observed: ?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show. In fact, during a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However, if we compare this figure to the partially complete list of recent disasters, we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978.?
*** g80 10/8 pp. 20-21 Do You Recognize the Meaning of What You See? ***
Has the frequency of earthquakes really increased? The Italian magazine Il Piccolo observed: ?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show.? And then it produced figures for the past thousand years to prove it.
*** hp chap. 15 p. 148 Is ?the End of the World? Near? ***
There have been earthquakes throughout history. But how does the period since World War I compare? In Il Piccolo, Geo Malagoli observes:
?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show. In fact, during a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However, [in] recent disasters, we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978. This dramatic increase further goes to emphasize another accepted fact?our generation is an unfortunate one in many ways.?
*** g81 1/8 The Best Life?Soon To Come ***
?EARTHQUAKES IN ONE PLACE AFTER ANOTHER??Matt. 24:7
"During a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However . . . we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978. . . . Our generation is an unfortunate one.??Italian journal ?Il Piccolo? (1978).
*** kc chap. 12 p. 113 The ?Last Days? and the Kingdom ***
Also, ?earthquakes? are included as part of the ?sign.? An upsurge in earthquakes since 1914? This may sound surprising. But the statistics are even more surprising! As Geo Malagoli commented in Il Piccolo: ?During a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes.? His figures show that during those years an average of 1,800 persons died each year in earthquakes, whereas there have been 43 major earthquakes since 1915, and these have killed an average of 25,300 persons a year.
*** g82 4/8 What Can Jesus Mean to You Now? ***
?Earthquakes in one place after another.? (Matthew 24:7) Before 1914, an estimated 1,800 persons a year died in earthquakes. Since 1914 the yearly average is 25,300.?Geo Malagoli, in Il Piccolo.
*** w83 5/15 p. 6 Earthquakes?A Sign of the End? ***
In the Italian journal Il Piccolo, of October 8, 1978, Geo Malagoli observed:
?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show. In fact, during a period of 1,059 years (from 856 to 1914) reliable sources list only 24 major earthquakes causing 1,973,000 deaths. However, [in] recent disasters, we find that 1,600,000 persons have died in only 63 years, as a result of 43 earthquakes which occurred from 1915 to 1978. This dramatic increase further goes to emphasize another accepted fact?our generation is an unfortunate one in many ways.?
*** ce chap. 18 p. 225 The Bible?Is It Really Inspired by God? ***
The Italian journal Il Piccolo reported: ?Our generation lives in a dangerous period of high seismic activity, as statistics show.?21 On the average, about ten times as many have died each year from earthquakes since 1914 as in previous centuries.
What do you guys think?
indoubt