Book Study this Week - Is the World Getting Worse?

by jgnat 19 Replies latest watchtower bible

jgnat

This week's book study is on the state of the world since Satan was ostensibly tossed down here to spread his misery in 1914. According to the Watchtower Society, the world has been steadily declining since that date. I contend they selectively filter bad news in order to maintain their beliefs. The world is not necessarily worse today. The closest humankind came to extinction was in the fourteenth century with the Black Plague. Well before Satan's supposed ousting from Heaven.
Anyways, back to "What does the Bible REALLY Teach" study topic this week. The chapter outlines five signs of the last days, as outlined in scripture:
Nation will rise against nation:
WT claim - there are more wars in the twentieth century than ever before.
What they don’t mention - The nature of war is profoundly changed through the twentieth century. There are fewer interstate wars, but internal conflicts (civil war and terrorism) continue to rage. There are large areas of the planet (Europe, North America) where war is virtually unknown. Modern wars have more civilian casualties. War isn't so much getting WORSE, as that it is CHANGING.
A thorough article on the subject: http://www.guardian.co.uk/saturday_review/story/0,3605,655478,00.html#article_continue
An interactive map, showing conflicts through the 20th century. You will have to install an Activex control http://nobelprize.org/educational_games/peace/conflictmap/conflictmap.html
There will be food shortages:
WT claim – it is getting more and more difficult to feed the earth’s millions.
What they forget to mention – there are more people! We’ve learned to make the land more productive, and in countries where they have domestic stability, starvation has been stopped (India).
A UN Success Story: http://www.un.org/esa/sustdev/mgroups/success/SARD-24.htm
There will be great earthquakes:
WT claim – we have many earthquakes today.
What they don’t mention – due to better construction methods, prediction, and emergency response, earthquakes are far less deadly. Also, the WT no longer claims there are MORE earthquakes these days. I wonder why?
http://www.watchtowerinformationservice.org/index.php/dates/the-watchtower-society-backpedals-on-earthquakes/
There will be pestilences:
WT claim – more people die of diseases than ever before.
What they don’t mention – we have many more people! The reason we have many more people is that mortality has dropped. People don’t die as young any more, because health care and food production has improved! Antibiotics and vaccinations have dramatically reduced mortality for all kinds of terrible diseases. Tuberculosis is no longer a death sentence. Smallpox is nearly wiped off the planet.
WHO is eradicating Polio: http://www.who.int/features/2004/polio/en/
People of the last days:
WT claim – people are nasty, based on 2 Timothy 3. The WT encourages the reader to think of personal examples.
What they don’t mention – is any authority, statistics, or concrete examples. This is the worst sort of argument, requesting the reader to come up with their own conclusions based on their observations. The truth is that crime statistics are dropping nation-wide. This is the generation of "Random Acts of Kindness" and Oprah.
Here's a good counterpoint article: http://www.stanford.edu/group/Thinker/v2/v2n4/CowgillCrime.html
Finally, here is a delightfully arranged article, a must-read - is the world getting worse? I highly recommend giving it a good read.
http://www.interestingideas.com/ii/better1.htm
lovelylil

jgnat,
I am with you on this one. They are manipulating the facts to try to fit. The world is a MUCH better place to live in today then in yesteryear. People live longer and healthier lives, work less hours, make more money, better housing, etc.
Many of the food shortages are in minute areas and are due to the governments over them and the greed, exploitation, corruption, etc. But the earth CAN produce enough food for eveyone.
As far as the nasty people of today: We have seen many instances in our recent past where people have come together for the good of others for no reason other than generosity. During the recent floods in the south, tsumanis, earthquakes and other disasters (9/11, etc) we saw humanity at its best......giving money, support and aide.....MINUS the Witnesses that is.
Also, the Witnesses are currently awaiting the destruction of 99.9% of mankind, men, women, children, elderly, everyone so that they can live on earth without them. Excuse me but isn't that GENOCIDE? And they get all gleeful when talking about it...........NOW REALLY, CAN YOU GET ANY NASTIER THAN THAT? The scripture that says that people will be LOVERS OF THEMSELVES, clearly describes the Jehovah's Witnesses. I rest my case. Lilly
M.J.
I sent this note to the Worldwatch institute regarding the WT quote here. I haven't received anything back. Perhaps if some here would like to send this note or a version of it to the Worldwatch Institute, they might respond. Contact: Worldwatch Institute
1776 Massachusetts Ave., N.W.
Washington, D.C. 20036-1904
USA
Phone: 202.452.1999
Fax: 202.296.7365
[email protected] Hello, I have a question regarding a statement from a Worldwatch Institute report quoted in the Jehovah's Witnesses' latest recruitment book, "What Does the Bible Really Teach?". First, however, please allow me to clarify a few points. Out of all the facts and figures cited, the aforementioned quote provides the book's most convincing and terrifying support of the Watchtower Society's claim that Satan was cast upon the earth in 1914. This event, according to the Society, commenced the "time of the end" soon to culminate in the battle of Armageddon, which only Jehovah's Witnesses will survive. Here is a portion of the passage where the Worldwatch Institute is quoted:
A report from the Worldwatch Institute states: "Three times as many people fell victim to war in [the 20th] century as in all the wars from the first century AD to 1899." More that 100 million people have died as a result of wars since 1914. (What Does the Bible Really Teach?, p. 89)

I found that the Worldwatch Institute report quoted here was the 1999 news release, "Kosovo and Beyond: Peacemaking in a Post-Cold War World" by Michael Renner: http://www.worldwatch.org/press/news/1999/04/29/ Another article by Mr. Renner, How to Abolish War , from The Humanist magazine in 1999 also affirmed that three times as many people fell victim to war since 1914 as in the prior nineteen centuries, even providing a century-by-century breakdown of the figures, as shown below:
```
War-Related Deaths Over the Centuries
```
```
 DEATHS DEATHS PER
 IN THOUSAND
 CENTURY MILLIONS PEOPLE
 1st to 15th 3.7 n.a. 
 16th 1.6 3.2 
 17th 6.1 11.2
 18th 7.0 9.7
 19th 19.4 16.2
 20th(*) 109.7 44.4 
```
```
(*) Up to 1995 
```
My question then is, how did Mr. Renner arrive at such numbers, since he provided no references for these statistics? To many who are looking to answer life's biggest questions, this is a matter of utmost importance. I personally tried to perform somewhat of a "reality check" on some of the figures from the above table by cross referencing available numbers of war dead from a few selected historical conflicts. For example, I selected two conflicts from the 17th century, the Thirty Years' War (1618-1648), and the extended Manchu conquest of Ming China, beginning in 1644. From the sources I've found, the Thirty Years' War resulted in an estimated death toll of 2-3 million soldiers and 7-8 million civilians, for a total of 9-11 million lives lost, according to R.R. Palmer, in A History of the Modern World (New York, 1952, p.133). The Manchu-Chinese war resulted in an estimated 25 million lives lost, according to E.L. Jones in The European Miracle (Cambridge, London, New York: Cambridge University Press, 1981, p.36) . These two wars alone account for an estimated 35 million war casualties, whereas Mr. Renner's number for the 17th century was 6.1 million. As another example, the Taiping Rebellion from 1850-1864 is estimated to have claimed 20-30 million lives or more, as reported by Palmer & Colton in A History of the Modern World Since 1815 (1978, p. 632). Mr. Renner's number for the entire 19th century was 19.4 million. Finally, I took a look at Genghis Khan's conquests in the 13th century. John Man, in the book Gehghis Khan: Life, Death, and Resurrection reported that Genghis Khan's conquests reduced the population by 40 million, while other estimates go as high as 60 million. Mr. Renner's number for the entire period from the 1st through 15th centuries was 3.4 million. Ultimately, I understand that even the numbers I cited tend to be speculative, as we simply have no reliable records on such statistics in past centuries, particularly within non-western societies (Native American, Indonesian, Central African, etc.). Even definitions on what constitutes war has varied throughout the ages. It is for such reasons that I wonder how much confidence could be attributed to Michael Renner's statistic quoted by the Watchtower Society to begin with (which incidentally does not take increasing population levels into consideration). So I ask, does the Worldwatch Institute stand behind this particular quoted statement, and if so, could references be provided in support of it? Or, does the Worldwatch Institute feel that perhaps this was an overly speculative generalization, and not necessarily accurate? Please understand that I mean no discredit to your organization or to the author, Michael Renner. I simply wish to further clarify a statement credited to your organization that is being used for recruitment purposes by the Watchtower Society. Thank you very much for your time and consideration in reading this letter. I eagerly await a response. Sincerely, MJ
jgnat

I wonder what would happen to the organization if a Witness were instructed to look for the good in others?
lovelylil

M.J.,
You are brilliant! Please keep us posted if they reply.
Honesty

Book Study this Week - Is the World Getting Worse?

Only in the deluded minds of people who are being deceived by a cult.
Christians have joy and peace on their minds and hearts.
JW's have doom and gloom on theirs
jgnat

Great job, M. J. Wouldn't it be great if we forced the WTBTS to stop using that quote?
Big Dog

About the only thing I would agree with them that is worse is that we now have weapons of mass destruction, other than that our standard of living is so much better than in the past.
jgnat

My hope, Big Dog, is that these WMD's have scared us straight. Who wants to hurl the first one? Not me.
jgnat

In honor of Minimus' resurrected thread:
http://www.jehovahs-witness.com/12/31741/1.ashx
Can anyone find out if anything significant happened on March, 26, 1918???

http://politicalgraveyard.com/chrono/1918/03-26.html

Book Study this Week - Is the World Getting Worse?

Share this