Hi Anakin,

It is a popular notion we live in troubled times and you can see it in the world news. As one of JWs I would have said something very similar if a person showed interest at the door. The problem is how vague all this is. The refrain often heard is "worsening world conditions" right? However, I could say with equal force we have "improving world conditions". How so? In many ways. For example infant death mortality has dropped dramatically. Or take the car. The car of 2009 is much cleaner, more reliable, less expensive item than what it was in the past. When you turn to medicine or agriculture how many would want to return to state of the art in the 1900s.

Ecclesiasties 7:10 says: 'Do not say: "Why has it happened that the former days proved to be better than these?" for it is not due to wisdom that you have asked about this.' Perhaps the author of Ecclesiasties noticed the same trend, i.e. people often say without qualification "times are worse now than before".

Certainly one can waste a lot of time reading bias-agenda-filled books. However, I wouldn't give up on the idea of learning from others. At the end of the day the Bible itself is just a collection of books (albeit very old and very influential).

Cheers,
Rawe