Insight on the News

‘Strict, Yet Happy’

“Their dress is neither modern nor ultra conservative, their hair falls into place naturally; they attach no importance to attracting attention, unless it be through a well-balanced personality and a showing of unpretentious interest. The girls use make-up in moderation; the boys are gentlemen. . . . The music they listen to in their leisure time and the movies they watch are chosen so that they do not deal with homosexuals, lesbians, fornicators, adulterers or criminals. . . . We are speaking about Jehovah’s Witnesses.” So began a report appearing in the German newspaper Badisches Tagblatt. It added: “It may seem strange when sixteen-year-old girls do not speak about married persons as ‘having affairs,’ but call it fornication, when they lump homosexuals, thieves and murderers together, when they disfellowship unrepentant persons who have had premarital sex relations.”

Such conduct may indeed seem “strange” in a world where young persons usually look upon the Bible’s standards as out of date and unduly restrictive of their freedom and happiness. Yet the Bible speaks of God’s requirements as “the perfect law that belongs to freedom” and states that the person who abides by it “will be happy in his doing it.”​—James 1:25.

Attesting to this, the reporter concluded: “But, despite all their strict standards, Jehovah’s Witnesses do not appear to be unhappy. To the contrary. The young as well as the older Bible students present an appearance of being unusually joyful and well balanced.”

New Theory on Universe

A new theory on the formation of the universe is gaining recognition among cosmologists. Called the inflationary universe theory, it is challenging the formerly favored big bang theory that “all the stuff of the universe was there from the beginning” and exploded, forming the universe. Says The New York Times: “The new view proposes, essentially, that the universe was born from virtually nothing. Its substance and energy formed spontaneously during an initial period of expansion,” starting from a small “seed.”

Those who have been interested in the development of such theories might well ask the question: Why the new theory? Because of “several mysteries that have cast doubt on the big bang model,” says the Times. The “extraordinary uniformity of the universe,” its “uniform expansion” without any “wild turbulence” and a “rate of expansion” that is “just too lucky” in matching the “requirements of universe formation” just do not fit the explosive big bang theory. But the new theory also raises questions. For instance, it is based on an exception to the law of conservation​—that matter cannot be created from nothing.

Yet, generally overlooked by scientists and fully in harmony with established scientific facts, is the Bible’s explanation of the universe. It shows that Jehovah God, the source of all energy, created the universe and established laws governing it​—to which its “uniformity” attests.​—Isaiah 40:26; Revelation 4:11.

Something More Needed

The Moral Majority “raised all the right issues,” says social scientist Amitai Etzioni, but its solutions are “technically incompetent.” He continues: “I mean that if you would do to perfection what they asked for​—if there wouldn’t be a single abortion, if pornography would be banned and burned, and if they would hang criminals twice a month—​that would do nothing to make people into religious beings, law-abiding, moral people.” Instead, he advocates preserving the “traditional family” by increasing “basic parenting” and learning how to resolve disagreements.

Yet even more is needed to make ‘religious, law-abiding and moral people.’ One’s thinking and heart motivation must be changed, based on accurate knowledge of God’s Word, to where one truly loves God and neighbor and wants to do what is right. (Colossians 3:10) Thus the Bible’s advice is to “put on the new personality” and to “be transformed by making your mind over, that you may prove to yourselves the good and acceptable and perfect will of God.” (Ephesians 4:22-24; Romans 12:2) How pleasant it will be when, under God’s Kingdom, this will be the situation earth wide!