Independent Thinking (page 3)

Madame Quixote

Because they're afraid it might lead to dancing.

Madame Quixote

Thanks for that post, Doc Bob.

It is interesting to note that one of the articles you quoted is called,"Intellectual Freedom or Captivity to the Christ?"

As if captivity to the WT publishing empire would be better?

Wafe

These are some of the reasons that I do not like religion (although I still believe the Bible)

Anyone who tells a person not to think for themselves and let that anyone do all the thinking is almost certainly going to take advantage of a person. There is no room to question. The funny thing is that the WTS has no problem telling people to question thier religion but when it comes to them, the picture changes completely.

That is why I like to study the Bible alone. No one is there to tell me if it is right. I can come to that conclusion myself.

Jeffro

Wafe:

That is why I like to study the Bible alone. No one is there to tell me if it is right. I can come to that conclusion myself.

Studying... on your own? Surely not...

Individual Bible study, certainly! Independent Bible study, beware! - Watchtower, 15 August 1952, page 501

Yes, what a stimulant to our spiritual wakefulness is diligent personal study of the Scriptures using Bible-based publications provided by “the faithful and discreet slave”! - Watchtower, 15 December 2003, page 22

We all need help to understand the Bible, and we cannot find the Scriptural guidance we need outside the “faithful and discreet slave” organization. - Watchtower, 15 February 1981, page 19

Balsam

Its clear that no JW should ever decide for themselves what is good or bad for them. Only the GB can do that and every JW must follow their dictates to the letter to have the promised everlasting life jesus promised. They clearly are cultish in their hatred of anyone questioning the authority of the governing body. But a cleaver use of the scriptures they make it seem that they are the only authority on the bible that anyone on the world should be listening too.

I remember those WT articles when they came out. I can remember thinking how I felt they were trying to cause divisions among the followers. Those who think and do as they want within the boundaries and those who follow the rules to the letter. I hate that study article because my then JW husband took it to heart and really clamped down on my sons and I.

DannyHaszard

quote from supreme court decision that favored JW's High rank article Religious minorities benefited from case
Reading Eagle, PA - 22 minutes ago
In the fall of 1935, Lillian Gobitas, 12, and her brother William, 10, Jehovah's Witnesses who lived in Minersville, refused on religious grounds to salute Wrote Justice Robert Jackson for the majority on Flag Day 1943: “If there is any fixed star in our constitutional constellation, it is that no official, high or petty, can prescribe what is orthodox in politics, nationalism, religion or other matters of opinion or force citizens to confess by word or act their faith therein. ... “Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.” “Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.” Contact columnist John W. Smith at 610-371-5007 or [email protected] [email protected]letters to editor MAKE SURE WE WRITE THEM ON THIS HYPOCRISY

Jeffro

Um... thanks DannyHaszard. Maybe you could explain how that is relevant to the topic?

DannyHaszard

Maybe you could explain how that is relevant to the topic?

Independent thinking cuts both ways the Watchtower wants theirs but is not willing to extend to their own dissenters who have independent thinking

Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.”
“Those who begin coercive elimination of dissent soon find themselves exterminating dissenters. Compulsory unification of opinion achieves only the unanimity of the graveyard.”

alamb

I posted this awhile back...

The Recovering Thinker

Hi, my name is Bob, and I am a recovering thinker….

It started out innocently enough: I began thinking at meetings now and then to loosen up. Inevitably though, one thought led to another and soon I was more than just a theocratic thinker. I began to think alone, you know, “to relax,” I told myself, but I knew it wasn’t true.

Thinking became more and more important, and finally I was thinking all the time. I even thought at the Kingdom Hall. I knew thinking and my position in the congregatin didn’t mix, but I couldn’t stop. I began avoiding the friends at lunchtime so I could read Crisis of Conscience and other works that challenged my thought processes. I returned to the Kingdom Hall dizzied and confused, asking, “What exactly are we doing here?”

Things weren’t great at home either. One evening I turned off the TV and asked my wife about the meaning of life guided by the FDS—she spent the night at her mother’s.

I soon had a reputation as a heavy thinker. One day the PO called me into the back room and said, “Bob, I like you, and it hurts me to say this, but your thinking is a real problem. If you don’t stop thinking, I’ll have to recommend you be disfellowshipped.” This gave me a lot to think about.

I went home early after my conversation with the elder. “Honey,” I confessed, “I’ve been thinking.”

“I know you’ve been thinking,” she said, “and I want a divorce.”

“But Honey, surely it’s not that serious.”

“It is serious,” she said, lower lip quivering. “You have been a fine window washer all your life and your service to Jehovah comes before the children and I having health insurance or educations.”

“That’s faulty syllogism,” I said impatiently, and she began to cry. I’d had enough. “I’m going to the library to look up what really happened in 607/587,” I snarled and stomped out the door. I headed to the library in the mood for enlightenment, roared into the parking lot, and ran up to the big glass doors—they didn’t open. The library was closed.

To this day I believe Jehovah was looking out for me that night. As I sank to the ground clawing at the unfeeling glass, whimpering for a computer with an internet connection to feed my starving mind, a magazine caught my eye; a Watchtower left in a laundromat. The words “Friend, is heavy thinking ruining your life?” stood out in large letters. You may recognize the line: it comes from the standard issue “Thinkers Anonymous” poster.

Today, I am a recovering thinker. I never miss a meeting . At each meeting we listen to a non-educational, self congratulatory public talk. I am again training my mind to be numb. Then we share experiences about how we avoided thinking since the last meeting. I still have my family and things are a lot better at home. Life just got easier, somehow, once I stopped thinking.

Soon, I’ll be able to be an elder again….

Thanks, Bob

Leolaia

Here is a video with Steve Hassan:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-5351483270625598640

Independent Thinking

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