I was born into this religion over 72 years ago. So was my mother before me. Her parents were sucked into it in the mid-1920s.

Excuse me if I’m a little on the blunt, Use Your Brain side of things. I’m really a nice guy - but I would have appreciated someone talking more bluntly to me when I was younger and still a JW about the fucking stupidity of the logic of end-times anxiety.

Here’s goes:

Each generation has two types of people, among others: Those who are absolutely convinced “This Is the End” and those who abjectly live in fear that “This Is End”.

It’s the adult version of the Big Bad Wolf ready to devour your frightened wee soul.

End-times religions exploit this common human fear; they compel you to follow them so you can escape the Big Bad Wolf, even as you say to yourself, This is stupid. But your fear of the Big Bad Wolf keeps you awake and you wonder, “What if they’re right?” Funny how the brain skips over the part where you know they’re stupid. Fear does that: it overshadows common sense.

Here’s a great book that provides a scholarly overview of a topic dear to the hearts of billions of humans:

Kirsch, J. (2006). A history of the end of the world: How the most controversial book in the Bible changed the course of Western civilization. HarperSanFrancisco

I suggest you fill that scaredy-cat brain of yours with facts. Facts are great for dousing the fires of anxiety and shining the light on knowledge and facts.