Forbidden fields of higher education for JW?

by Shazard 24 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

  • witnessgirl
    witnessgirl
    What's really bizarre- going to college or taking certain courses receives negative reactions from JW's, but having a degree in any of those fields brings positive comments from the dubs. Doing it is wrong, but having completed it is wonderful.

    That's exactly what I noticed! If you're interested in actually going to college, everyone will do everything they can to discourage you, but people with degrees get treated with the highest respect, their profession is the first thing that gets mentioned when they're introduced. Grrrr...

  • Bring_the_Light
    Bring_the_Light

    The Post Secondary Enrollment Options (PSEO) program saved me. This is where you go to college your Junior and Senior years of High School (in Minnesota). Just a "different" way to finish high school, hehe. I now have a Bachelors of Science in Chemical Engineering ONTOP of all the nasty classes (Sociology, psychology, history, literature etc etc etc) that would be a huge red flag. I nearly used PSEO to be an auto mechanic under the pressure of JW-like thinking. :( My High School English teacher laughed when I mentioned that was an option. I like to think she was flattering me by telling me I could do better, but she was also an elistest bitch so she might have just been laughing. :)

  • Forscher
    Forscher
    really any of the social science areas of study since they encourage independent thought and critical thinking.

    I beg to differ with you on that one Isaacaustin. The social science programs I saw in the universities, and I went to two universities, encouraged no such thing. They expected strict adherence to "progressive" thought, period.

    One professor of memory was an activist lesbian who required her students to wade through reams of extreme feminist writing in the basic social research methods class she taught. Never mind that garbage had absolutely nothing to do with the university's requirements for the course. Another professor showed up drunk most of the time because he couldn't personally handle the way Marx was proven wrong by the fall of the East-European Communist states in the early 90's. I had him as a professor in late 1995. By the way, criticism of "progressive" thought was a big no-no in his class. I could go on, but why waste the space.

    One thing which amazed me was that I got all the way through college without any training in critical thinking skills or fallacies. What little I have of those areas are from self-study and plain life experience. The reason for that is obvious. Those universities wanted modern left-wing thinking inculcated in their students with little or no question. Sure, they wanted their students to question traditional morality and thinking, but not due to reason. They simply wanted it rejected because it did not conform with "progressive" truth.

    Surprisingly, my brother, who holds a two-year degree in nursing, got more formal training in critical theory and recognition of fallacies than I did. Apparently nurses have greater need for such than social science students.

    As for forbidden fields for JWs, theology is obvious. I would think the recent pronouncement forbidding study in biblical languages may well point to another. On the whole, though, the GB seems to want to discourage any higher education at all, just like they did in my day.

    Forscher

  • nurse09
    nurse09

    I am actually a student nurse right now. However, the hospital that I work with has a policy that if any procedure conflicts with your personal values or beliefs you do not have to do it. Of course you have to go through the correct procedures like notifying your supervisor and such. But, I appreciate the fact that they have that policy.

  • VM44
    VM44

    I read here once (when it was JWD) that a pioneer sister was removed from being a pioneer by the elders when it was found out she was taking a college course in philosophy!

  • VM44
    VM44
    the washtowel just put out science as a "valueless thing".

    The Watchtower magazine has been publishing "valueless things" for 130 years!

  • mamochan13
    mamochan13
    What's really bizarre- going to college or taking certain courses receives negative reactions from JW's, but having a degree in any of those fields brings positive comments from the dubs. Doing it is wrong, but having completed it is wonderful.

    That's exactly what I noticed! If you're interested in actually going to college, everyone will do everything they can to discourage you, but people with degrees get treated with the highest respect, their profession is the first thing that gets mentioned when they're introduced. Grrrr...

    I think they like to gloat: "we got an educated person to actually buy into our crap therefore it must be right...haha." But then you must scorn what you learned. kind of like the personal experiences that always highlight someone who was a famous musician who left his career to become a JW. They always leave their careers when they become JWs in the articles.

    They just forbid any higher education. Doesn't matter what field. Enlightenment lurks around every university hallway.

  • VM44
    VM44

    Look how The Watchotwer is using this person's academic achievements for promotion.

    As told by Alton Williams, Ph.D.
    "Why I Believe the Bible, A Nuclear Scientist Tells His Story"

    http://www.watchtower.org/e/20040122a/article_01.htm

    I want to mention that Dr. Williams doe NOT answer any inquiries concerning this article. Any email sent to him will go unanswered.

  • blondie
    blondie

    I did find that his phone number at A&M University is 256-958-8145.

  • daniel-p
    daniel-p

    Anything that is not strictly vocational, they will find a problem with. Also, if you want anything more than a 2-year degree, the general education you'll need to finish will include things like critical thinking, psychology, maybe philosophy (or religious studies), and communication (which may require you to be tolerant of other lifestyles, beliefs, etc.). Basically, anything that is designed to make you think and test your own beliefs.

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