Whatever happened to those "asteroid bombs"????

by Leolaia 6 Replies latest jw friends

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    How coherent and fear-mongering is this passage?

    33 Since 1914 we have gone through two world wars, the second being worse than the first. We have seen atomic power introduced into modern warfare, under the shield of the most powerful nation of Christendom. We are not yet done with the pestilences, the famines and the earthquakes that have cut deeply into the world population. (Really? Isn't the 20th century a time of unprecedented growth in human population?) We have seen an increase in lawlessness, with violence that must be worse than that which prevailed in Noah's days (Really? Were you there?) before the flood in which the whole old world was destroyed. -Genesis 6:11-13; 2 Peter 3:6.

    34 To this we must add the moral breakdown everywhere, the increase of social diseases, the breakup of empires, a world population explosion (Wait a minute? I thought the population was "cut deeply"?) with inadequate food distribution (But far better than in any time in human history), missile weaponry with nuclear warheads, the blasting off of which would be followed by a fire storm that would burn up a far greater area than that of Sodom and Gomorrah (standard Cold War fear, plus another biblical comparison) and the other cities of the Jordan plain.

    35 And now the latest thing proposed is an "asteroid bomb," which would be a rocket powerful enough to propel a small planet out of its orbit around the sun and send it crashing into a target area here on earth. In describing it, a scientist said: "A single asteroid bomb striking Kentucky would knock out the entire eastern half of the United States," this to be followed by earthquake shocks that "would topple buildings all over the North American continent." The scientist said that the Soviet Union should have such a rocket by or before 1970. Is this not indeed a time for fear? (Take Courage -- God's Kingdom is at Hand!, 1962, Watchtower and Bible Tract Society)

    I must've missed that development. ::shrug::

  • Nathan Natas
    Nathan Natas

    I think the whiz kids at Watchtower Laboratories are still working the kinks out of this one - when they're not whizzing on each other's shoes.

  • Jim_TX
    Jim_TX

    Geez Louise Leolaia,

    This was released in 1962 - at the height (or near so) of the cold war with Russia... Cuba... etc.

    I don't know how old you are, but as a child in elementary school in 1962, I remember having to go out in the hallway after an alarm sounded and doing the crouch in the hall bit (wasn't it called the 'duck and cover'?)... it was an exercise for 'protection' in case of a nuclear attack... as if ducking in the hallway would make a difference.

    The WTBTS always (or used to) follows the 'trends' of the day in their publications. If you start looking at the older publications, you will see that.

    As for the concept of an 'asteroid bomb'... doing a Google on that phrase turned up a couple of interesting hits that describe the possibility for such a device.

    Regards,

    Jim TX

  • Leolaia
    Leolaia

    Yeah, that's right, 1962 was a pretty heady year with the Missile Crisis -- well-suited for apocalyptic scenarios.

    Anyway, it is interesting because I read a recent post on this forum describing a witness recalling how serene things were in the fifties and sixties and that now with the terrorism threat, the world has become much more dangerous and scary. I guess the more things change....

  • blondie
    blondie

    Didn't they use it in the movie "Armageddon"?

  • Jim_TX
    Jim_TX

    "...witness recalling how serene things were in the fifties and sixties..."

    Serene??? Do you call this publication, and the one called "From Paradise Lost to Paradise Regained" - 'serene'???

    Some of those photos in that 'Paradise' book still haunt me (well, not really... but they cannot be considered 'serene').

    As for conditions in the world... this person must have had their head in the sand. JFK had his finger 'on the trigger' so to speak - real close to launching nuclear missles against Cuba. (and likewise - them against us)

    There have also been other 'close calls' through the years...

    Regards,

    Jim TX

  • maninthemiddle

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