It's 9pm over here, so good evening to those without the sun, and good morning to those who just got it from us.
I've been pretty aggitated with the needless demonizing of higher education from the WTS. They make subtle gestures but their lawyers are too clever to let them say it directly these days.
But I was rereading the February 2011 Awake Magazine. I use my Watchtowers and Awakes for giggles on the can these days. But having read articles online, and numerous posts on here, one article jumped out to me. On page 21, as a subarticle of "In Search of Gold, They Found a Home," there is a story about a couple from China named Wayne and Sue Qu (who knows if it's their real name, since the WTS seems to change the names of everyone they "interview").
As a brief summary, the couple were studying to be high level scientists and moved to Europe in the 90's where they met some Witnesses. In 2000, they moved to Australia to continue their studies, "secular" and biblical. Here are two paragraphs that bugged me.
* Wayne explains: "We had spent decades getting advanced university degrees. Yet, I would say to myself: 'In the end, we all grow old, get sick, and die.' Is that the purpose of life? It all seemed to be in vain. The Bible, however, gave Sue and me logical, satisfying answers to life's most important questions."
The end of this seemed fishy, but I haven't had most of my collection of WTS material for a while. So if someone has a way of looking up that last sentence "the bible gives logical, satisfying answers" in WTS material, I'd very much appreciate it. I know I've heard them use that line verbatum in other articles.
* Sue and I were baptized in 2005, glad that we found something of much greater value than higher education and 'gold that perishes.'
Anyone who spends decades working to be a scientist, only to give it up because someone across the world says it's a condemnable waste of time, deserves to have nothing but illusions given to them.
I don't grasp why the Organization frowns on higher education with their own people and then gladly takes the fruits of the labor of "Satan's System."
The Organization dupes it's followers into missing a major point in higher education. And if Wayne Qu spent decades learning for the sake of money or knowledge, then he wasted alot of money missing the point as well.
Knowledge is a legacy to be passed on and improved upon. Everything my father knew, he taught me. I learned from him and others and will teach my son, and he too, will learn more than I teach him and pass his knowledge on. Science started with practical purposes (knowing that rubbing two sticks together in a certain way makes fire). It evolved into understanding (learning that friction in general creates heat, not just two pieces of wood rubbing together). And those aspects are divided and used (learning what causes and prevents friction generated heat).
Alexander Fleming was watching people die off from antiseptic poisoning and eventually discovered that it's only useful as a topical application. He went on to accidentally create, then master the understanding and creation of penicillin.
Every aspect of modern medicine, including blood fractions and bloodless surgeries, was created by people who went to college and learned what a thousand generations of people learned and improved upon before they enrolled in classes. The latter examples of blood fractions and bloodless surgical procedures, ironically, were developed by "worldly people," not JWs.
Isaac Newton, the man who discovered and developed the reasoning to answer "why do things fall instead of float away?" College educated. And he named this magical force, that turned out to not be Jehovah at all.
But the WTS, in all their damnable hatred for higher education, they have real estate managers, business majors, lawyers, doctors, and advertising executives in their rank and file. All without a single chime of disapproval. Seems they only have problems with higher education that disproves the credit Jehovah gets for many things He's got nothing to do with. And they really haaaaaaaaate psych majors.
I will try to cite this in the next 24 hours, and hopefully someone beats me to the punch, but I remember the WTS writing that group therapy should be avoided because you wouldnt want to share experiences of the Watchtower with worldly people, or something to that effect.
I firmly believe that if they have such an issue with their people going to college, because they see it as a waste of time, they should stop using our land and resources. It may be Jehovah's world down the road, but it's governed by the secular world now. When the cat's away, the mice will play, after all.