Thoughts on University Education

by Band on the Run 17 Replies latest watchtower child-abuse

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  Shrugged

  Oh gosh it´s sad to hear the words from No room for george :(

  Sokrates once said: "There is only one good, knowledge, and one evil, ignorance." Knowledge is NEVER a bad thing. And no, money and status is not the only reason people seek higher education. We are designed to learn, we need to learn, it´s FUN to learn. And i truly wish everyone would have the opportunity to study at a higher level.

  Many jw:s bash down on higher education and say it´s a waste, but at the same time they draw full advantage of all the things society has to offer which wouldnt be possible without people seeking higher education. Who would fly the boeing when a Jw wanna go on vacation? Who would take care of the broken bone when a jw:s child is hurt? Who would build the computers that almost every Jw use daily, writes their speach on etc?
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  alanv

  The only reason not to go to Uni now is that there are so many doing it, and often not enough people learning practicle jobs, like being a plumber, electrician etc. However Uni gives you power to reason and check what you have been told. That is the main reason the society are against it.

  However when it comes to getting witnesses to act as lawyers and doctors for them at Bethel. I am sure they are very glad they have those Uni trained witnesses.
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  Terry

  Jehovah's Witnesses are between a rock and a hard place. They pretend to be reasonable and logical, yet, true facts challenge nearly everything they teach as true.

  Over the years distortions and context-dropping, cherry-picking quotes and crackpot science has made the Watchtower religion a broad target for COUNTER-EVIDENCE against them.

  The only strategy left for the Governing Body is to FORBID a "higher-education" to keep members ignorant of those prickly facts.

  Watchtower teachings cannot withstand factual rebuttal when OLD TEACHINGS are laid beside NEW TEACHINGS. Consequently, the internet has become the enemy.

  University training in science, biology, geology and history are deadly threats to the flimsy scholarship supporting JW doctrine.

  What has gone awry for religions in general in a technology-driven and scientific era is the UNWILLINGNESS TO CHANGE and ADAPT.

  Religion does not deal with FACT; only authority and interpretation.

  Facts are impossible to combat---except by lying, distorting or ignoring them.

  Religion has become more and more retrograde and stupid in the Scientific age.

  Life itself is a model of ADAPT or PERISH.

  Where does that leave an institution that thrives on superstition, mysticism and "revealed knowledge"?
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  Band on the Run

  No, not all religions collapse under education. As I stated, the great European universities served the Roman Catholic Church. Education is highly prized in Judaism. Heck, even Mormons get an education. When Europe was plunged into chaos with the dissolution of the /roman Empire, Irish monks kept education alive. Monasteries were formed on islands off the coast in the hope that the Vikings would find it difficult for find them. The great Roman and Greek classics would have been lost were it not for monastic studies.
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  designs

  Do you see an evolution or even a revolution that occurs with education in that old superstitions give way to ideas and theories which can be subjected to proveable means. In Judaism, LDS, Catholicism, and other religious beliefs they do not maintain the same academic ideas of a century ago. In History and legends of their Beleifs yes but the sciences require shedding of old ideas for new ones. To use Catholicism as an example they have begun the process of considering Evolution. It was the Jews who 'enlightened' Origen that Genesis was not to be read literally, they had evolved that process 800 years earlier. Such a process was also seen in the Watchtower's version of Genesis by opting for a 7000 years creative day vs the Literalists position. Religion under that context is then by necessity taught as anthropological/social history.
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  wobble

  I think the WT's attitude toward Uni. education springs from both Russell and Rutherford not rally being qualified in anything (Rutherford dabbled in the law that is all) and freddie Franz had no qualifications, not even as a normal human being !
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  White Dove

  How about if the WT minds its own effing business on people's spiritual welfare, hmm?

  It's up to the individual to mind their own spiritual health, not for others to do it for them.

  If you don't like what commercialism provides you to wear, watch, or do, then make up your own.

  That JW answer was so narrow minded.

  Speaking of making up my own, better get started making more rows on my afghan.

  It's getting cold.

  Oh, and the cat got my sweater dress.
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  JeffT

  I somehow managed to get absorbed by the WTBS during my senior year at Washigton State University. I was in a bad place in my life and it all made sense at the time. I gave up a chance to go to grad school and get a Master's degree because the end was coming so soon. I was twenty-two then and sixty now, the new system isn't here yet.

  When I left I kick myself for not doing the basic research I should have done. I had access to a library with over two million volumes in it. I never once went up there and looked up JW's.

  NRFG I'd be real interested in hearing how "divine education" makes peoples lives better.