Yeah, it's pretty sick and anticlimactic at the same time. So much "hope" over suffering with so much nothing to show for it.

I used to think that they would have wished the "Sign" included terrorism, tsunamis, and hurricanes/cyclones to further solidfy thier beliefs. But now I realize they can cover them as war-related (terrorism), earthquake derived (tsunami), and all of them as people being "faint out of fear".

I am sure you are correct. Let me just copy and paste a concluding line from a Jw sympathizer's email I received last week.

This was the last line of an email exchange in which we were agreeing that the JW religion has incorrectly judged the entire world as wicked.

This guy is not a Jw, never has been. He is 3rd generation 'I believe it is the truth, but I will not ever do anything about it', Jw sympathizer. The doctrine runs so deep to those affected that I wonder how many millions are living in constant fear of the 'end' who never actually took on the full religion. How sad to held in bondage to ideas that you never fully embraced.

I was thinking of replying to this line - but I have to agree that the current rash of disasters are hard to ignore, especially by those influenced by Apocalyptic views like Jw's. Likely he would not believe that we are not in the worse of times ever, no matter the weight of evidence I present.

Jeff

Imagine if you went to the same restaurant night after night and ordered the same meal and that meal consisted of bones, stems, seeds, leaves, gristle, fat and tepid tea!!

What would your view of the restaurant be?

This is what happens at the local Kingdom Hall. The "waiter" brings you tripe. The information a JW is allowed to receive about LIFE IN GENERAL is trimmed of all nutrition, flavor and hearty goodness and replaced with the stems, gristle and fat!

THIS IS A PSYCHOLOGICAL FILTER!

There are around 5 billion people on the Earth right now. The vast majority of them are fine, decent, honest, hard-working, genuine people who are just like everybody else. Most of them are religious in nature. The nasty few who cause trouble make the headlines.

By deliberately filtering out ALL GOOD NEWS the Watchtower Society is blinding people and destroying their taste buds for honest information about the real world!

It is like having a "friend" who only badmouths everybody and everything hanging around you poisoning your day with a polluted world view.

It drags you down and makes you depressed and negative too!!

These Jehovah's Witnesses become TOXIC!

Their level of negativity is like kryptosporidium in the drinking water!

The only remedy is to filter THEM first!

Every time you hear one of the JW's make a NEGATIVE statement, counter it with a POSITIVE one.

I have found that JW's hate POSITIVE statements!!

Weird. Just plain weird!

They are only allowed to make positive statements of propaganda about the Society and the religion itself.

And when nothing is happening on earth, seems pretty quiet then they can go around that the end is so near because Paul mentioned about peace and security.

The end is always so close.

10p you caught that spelling error of mine (retrobution).  I don't think it's going to make me get any better.  I get worse with age. 

While in college, I hated taking Statistics!  If it weren't for SAS (computer stats program), I wouldn't have made it!

And yes, I buy lotto tickets!

ironically alex yes the watchtower warns about propaganda, needless to say it applies to everyone but them

http://www.watchtower.org/e/20000622/article_02.htm

"By clever and persevering use of propaganda even heaven can be represented as hell to the people, and conversely the most wretched life as paradise." —ADOLF HITLER, MEIN KAMPF.