Insight on the News
Tibet’s Religion “Killed”
● “Official atheism has killed religion in remote Tibet,” the “Smithsonian” magazine reports. The once-dominant Buddhist religion has been practically wiped out since the Communist takeover of that province more than two decades ago.
A correspondent of the magazine relates: “Of Tibet’s 5,000 [Buddhist] monasteries, only about a dozen active ones remain; the rest are used as warehouses or are falling into ruin.” The huge Drepung monastery outside Tibet’s capital city of Lhasa was once the main center of Tibetan Buddhism, with 10,000 resident monks. Today only 300 monks live there, and no new monks are being recruited.
Bible prophecy foretold that in our day this world’s religions, including Christendom, would suffer a similar fate. They are represented in the Bible pictorially as “Babylon the Great, the mother of the harlots and of the disgusting things of the earth.” The Bible then describes how the political elements of this world “will hate the harlot and will make her devastated and naked, and will eat up her fleshy parts and will completely burn her with fire.”—Rev. 17:5, 16.
In view of this, lifesaving is God’s warning: “Get out of her [Babylonish false religion], my people, if you do not want to share with her in her sins, and if you do not want to receive part of her plagues.”—Rev. 18:4.
Improved Without Television
● A Japanese housewife wrote the following to Tokyo’s “Daily Yomiuri” some time after her television set broke down: “The life pattern of my two children, seven and five-year-old boys, has since shown a remarkable change. Before the TV broke, my boys only watched TV after dinner. They never listened to my suggestion to read books. But now that the TV is broken, they are quite eager to read books.”
This mother also said: “What most surprised me is that my five-year-old boy has mastered 48 Japanese kana [Japanese syllabary alphabet] in 10 days by himself. Now he can write postcards to his grandmother and friends in the countryside.” She added: “Since they were brought up with TV, they at first complained about being without it. But they no longer complain about it now.” Also, many other parents have noted improvements in both behavior and schoolwork after more carefully regulating their children’s television habits.
Children often imitate what they see. And much of what they see on television has to do with violence and immorality. In this regard, an official of the National Parent-Teacher Association in the United States declared: “There is a causal relationship between violence seen on TV, and aggressive, violent behavior among children.”
Therefore, wise parents carefully regulate the mental food that young minds take in, since, to a large extent, what a young mind feeds on determines the kind of adult the child becomes. Counsels God’s Word: “My son, to my wisdom O do pay attention. To my discernment incline your ears, so as to guard thinking abilities.”—Prov. 5:1, 2.
Marijuana Affects Fliers
● Seven professional and three private airplane pilots took part in an experiment designed to see what effects the smoking of marijuana had on flying ability. “Results of that experiment were frightening,” reported the Denver “Post.”
After smoking marijuana, the fliers were tested in a flight simulator and their reactions were recorded by a video camera. The marijuana caused “increased prevalence of major errors, minor errors, altitude deviations, heading deviations, and radio navigation errors,” the study showed. Similar results have been obtained in tests involving automobile driving skills.
Hence, marijuana use can result in mental distortion. Indeed, people use it to produce a condition called a “high,” or to become “stoned.” Without question, then, it can contaminate both mind and body. That is why Christians totally avoid its use, particularly since God’s Word says: “Let us cleanse ourselves of every defilement of flesh and spirit.”—2 Cor. 7:1.