EvilPolygons
Survivor
Okay, so let's think about jars for a minute.
One reason given to want them is reason or immersion. If you were living in a world where zombies are walking through water and corpses are everywhere, the last thing you want to be doing is drinking water from a lake or river, regardless what you do to decontaminate it. Sure, if you have no choice, you can do it. But you are very likely to face some kind of side effects, including potential death. It would be fast safer to use a rain collector or dew collector. There are still risks there if there are any contaminants in the air, but it would tend to be a safer choice.
The drinking water that comes out of your tap was raw sewage a week ago. And they don't even boil it in water treatment plants. They certainly don't distill it. All they do is strain the crap out of it (literally) and mix it with chlorine. That's it. Then you drink and shower with it.
The argument that all lakes and rivers would be somehow spoiled by dead things floating around in them ignores the reality that all lakes and rivers in real life already have dead things floating around in them. And animals (and people) going to the bathroom in them. No offense, but these kinds of arguments make me wonder how much time some of you guys have ever spent in the great outdoors.
Pathogens don't survive boiling, and the toxins left by various bacteria are no match for soap.
Viruses don't exactly thrive in fresh water sources, either.
Protozoa are the most likely things to make you sick from drinking contaminated water, and they aren't any more difficult to get rid of than bacteria.
Throw bleach into the equation and there's nothing you can't sterilize.
Again, the water you drink today was raw sewage a week ago.

