Are things REALLY getting worse? JWs are so pessimistic...

by somebodylovesme 13 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  El blanko

  Just to throw my miserable turd into the mix.

  Yes, I do believe "things" are getting worse.

  Things like:

  1. Attitude within Western society. That "lack of love" that the Bible talks about. City life for the most part is disfiguring to the soul and this "ideal" is being sort by the world population in general. That "love of money" is driving the world into a hideous fenzy and helps develop that lovely "me first" ego trip. Beautiful.

  2. The arms race. Yes, there have always been wars, yet there has not always been the desire and capability to develop those mystical "weapons of mass destruction". Remember the atom bomb anybody? Another love expanding piece of recent human activity. Let the war mongers step forward and try and convince you that peace and security is only possible by pointing a gun at another brothers head.

  3. God is mocked and berated on mass. Again, a sign of our times.

  4. The world eco system is being stretched so thin, that it will snap under pressure. Mother nature is being raped by man's pursuit of riches. That rape continues within this very hour, this very minute. How many precious species need to be wiped out, before we understand our own greed?

  For sure friends, many of us here have wonderful cotton wool encased lives. How simply marvelous for "us" eh? We lucky few who exist in a buffer zone created by our own denial of the grim nature of reality.
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  Freddy Krueger

  If I had to think back on a more violent time. "The middle ages" comes to mind. Especially if you were involved in the so called "Christian" movement back then. More deaths and murders all in the name of God. Every century seems to have a time period, that if you were in that time period, you would believe it was the end times. No different now. However, I tend to agree that things now, are not as bad as many times throughout histrory.

  -Freddy
• 

  La Capra

  I loved when they would come to the door with this spiel-about how bad things were. I set up your exact same examples, somebody, talking about how through the ages the typical human being suffered far more, during a far shorter life, than we do now, even in third world countires, where disease, famine and high death rates are still present.

  The fact is that until the 20th century, most people, unless they were sinfully rich, were basically slaves, working their whole lives for basic needs, and not a whole lot more. If they ventured about, they ran a very likely risk of being robbed in their travels, and left for dead. There was never enough food, water or basic shelter and clothing that could be kept clean and comfortable. Most people were governed or ruled by some sort of tyranny, be it a baron, lord, bishop or dictator.

  There was far more war and violence as neighboring tribes and ethnic groups battled for land and supremacy-raping and pillaging along the way. Proportionally, far more people died as a result of those fracases than soldiers do now, thanks to modern medicine and nutrition.

  No one was educated, and if you were lucky enough to be born a male, then maybe, just maybe, you could get learn to read (if you became a priest or monk).

  Most people did not have the basic human rights that we now consider necessities.

  The weather and the earthquakes are not more severe than they ever have been.

  Well, I must have rattled on like this for several minutes, giving lots of examples of regimes, time periods, and well known brutalities and human injustice. I finally stopped to catch my breath by asking the person who was unlucky enough to ring my doorbell with that presentation whether she really believed that times are worse now than ever. She still did.

  So I said this: "Well then, consider this. If it were 2000 years ago and you came up to me trying to convert me, say on some road out of the city, and I wanted to beat you to a bloody pulp, I daresay, not much would happen to me, but you'd have no modern medical care to set your bones, no antibiotics for all you cuts and abrasions, and no one would haul me to jail for assaulting you, would they, afterall you're just a woman...." She looked scared for a second, then realized I was being ironic. She went on to the next door. I bet she used a different spiel there. In fact, I bet she never used the critical-times-hard-to-deal-with spiel ever again.

  Shoshana
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  somebodylovesme

  El blanco -

  "God is mocked." Isn't it great that we have the freedom to think and express what we believe today? You didn't used to have a choice - and still don't in some parts of the world. Forgive me for sounding sappy, but I think that freedom is precious and unique.