Thanks Oracle.
Why didn't we ever study "Mankind's Search For God"?
by gubberningbody 115 Replies latest jw friends
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agonus
I was only a teenager, but I swear we studied this at book study in the early 90s. Maybe it was back when local elders had a choice in reading material?
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blondie
I was 38 in 1990 when this book came out. Every year I hoped and hoped it would be studied and asked the elders. I don't have to depend on the CD or the internet, I have my memory and the memories of other adult jws at that time. I still contend that some are confusing the Greatest Man book with the Mankind's Search book.
From the time I was born till today, the elders have never selected what book would be studied at the book study arrangement. The WTS/Bethel in NY makes the selection. There was a time that the paragraphs to be studied were not selected but each book study conductor tried to cover a reasonable amount of material so they would not be trying to study 10 pages a week towards the ending period designated by New York.
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keyser soze
I could've sworn we studied it, too, but I will defer to blondie on this one. It's quite possible I'm confusing it with some other book.
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blondie
My husband came in the year that book was released, 1990. I checked with him today and he confirmed my memory...it was never studied in the book study arrangement nor was the material used in the school schedule. I kept all my study books since they had no sale value on ebay, etc., and it is as pristine as when I got it in 1990 as I look at it now in front of me. No notes, no underlines, no highlighter. My old study books are just the opposite. Like I said, many confuse it with the Greatest Man book which was studied 3 if not 4 times.
http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20091004210226AAWvr4V
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sir82
JW for 40+ years.
The book was never studied at the congregation book study.
At no time in the past 40 years have elders, "local or regional elders" included (whatever that means), had the authority to tell their group, "well, the Society wants us to study [XYZ] book, but we're going to study the MSFG book instead".
Any elder who would even suggest such a thing would have his "privlieges removed" faster than you can say "Joe Rutherford was a boozer".
I suspect some posters are confused because as noted, the topics from that book were covered in the Theocratic Ministry School in the early 90's, and all "good JWs" would have "studied" on their own ahead of time for each of those meetings.
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cognizant dissident
So, you guys are saying that NO JWs ANYWHERE...EVER...studied the Search book? Why is it so hard to just allow that SOME JWs studied the Search book in a bookstudy setting? Whatever.
Darkuncle: It is so hard to allow because all JW's everywhere have to follow the same book study schedule. I will allow that there may have been some apostate bookstudy group somewhere that decided on their own to study this book. Happy now?
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gubberningbody
I find it disappointing that some JW's can't even remember if they did or didn't study something.
No. We never studied this book. No one did, not in ANY language, and not ANYWHERE on this planet.
The only time anyone had discretion as to what to study would have been if they had an odd pioneer studying this with them. Of course if they reported this on their study slip, they'd be talked to as to why they were deviating from the program.
I was hoping that someone who was at Bethel might have some insight (not the IT vol 1 & 2) as to the reasoning.
Let's put it this way. If you THINK you studied it, you're wrong. If you continue to maintain that you did, then I'll have to question every fact that ever comes out of your head because if you STRONGLY believe something to be so and cannot prove it and don't care to even evaluate the possibility of your obvious wrongness, then how could anything else that you strongly assert have any evidentiary value?
It can't. You stop being an "expert witness" and become some bystander who was distracted and then interviewed later as to whether you saw or heard anything. We all know how accurate these sorts of "eyewitnesss accounts" are.
Man! I suppose I find the contention that some have that anyone ever studied this to be as annoying as these jacka$$e$ I used to deal with at the door who imagined something to exist in the Bible, and couldn't fathom that anyone could have so exhaustively read it that they could instantly know that their particular "biblical" contention was completely devoid of any substance or accuracy.
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Balsam
We did study that book. It was about 1997 as I recall. I was fascinated with Buddhism teachings after reading and studying the lesson on that. I like that book better than the rest of them.
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gubberningbody
No you didn't, Balsam. Not at a congregation-sanctioned book study.
If you give me a date, I'll tell you exactly what you WERE studying and exactly WHAT pages, and paragraphs.
I conducted book studies from 1985-2009.
I know whereof I speak.
In 1997 from Jan-Sep , the Greatest Man book was studied, after this was The Secret of Family Happiness (Oct-end of year and into 1998)
