This WT book allows one raised as a JW to do a critical review of the religion and elders can't go against it.

by EndofMysteries 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

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  EndofMysteries

  I love this gem, it was taken off the jw.org website, it seems only material after 1990 is up now, but it's here, http://www.scribd.com/doc/5472988/The-Time-for-True-Submission-to-God

  Page 6, "The need to search for the truth".

  Says this....and I couldn't agree with it more!

  " But do we deserve honor or credit for belonging to a religion that we received from our parents, if we have never done anything to check whether that religion is right or wrong? A man born in Italy would likely be born into a Catholic family, and he would grow up a Catholic. A man born in Burma would likely be of the Buddhist religion. If a man is born in a Muslim family, he will likely grow up as a Muslim. Surely all of this means nothing as to his submitting himself to God. It is purely an accident.

  The man who truly surrenders himself to God is the one who carefully examines all aspects of the religion he was born into. If he finds it is true, he remains with it. But if he finds it is false, he sets out to find the true religion. Some find it hard to reason on the subject of religion. They are strongly convinced theirs is the right religion and no more discussion is needed.

  In this, we may be a little like a fanatical supporter of a certain sports team. As you know, when a fanatical supporter watches his own team play another one, he supports his own, however badly it plays. If the opponents win, he may say that they cheated, or the referee was on their side, or something else happened. He thus ignores the good qualities of the other team, and all the bad qualities of his own. However, to see the true facts in a sports engagement, you have to be impartial. And this is even more so in the case of religion.

  If our mind is captive to prejudice, we will never see the truth. Is it reasonable to say whether something is right or wrong before you have looked into it, or before you have even thought about it? Yes, we may have received our religion from our parents, and we respect our parents. We owe them much, and many of the things they have given us are very good. But that does not mean we have to accept everything they say without thinking. Our parents are human, as we are. They make mistakes, as we do.

  In fact, many of the problems that we have to live with today are because of things that our parents’ generation did. They did not do them deliberately to make things hard for us. They just made mistakes, because of being human. Hence, a wise man will examine the things he has received from his parents, including his religion. He will keep the good things and reject those things that are not good. This is essential if he is to find the truth about religion.
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  EndofMysteries

  I make that claim because I used it myself. My first concern when speaking with them was I felt like a hypocrite, preaching things to people that we don't practice ourselves. They assured me we don't lie and we don't do that.

  Then I brought this article up and said if I was to do what we are asking others to do in this article, I'd get dfed. They couldn't agree with me because then that would admit we are hypocrites and liars, so I was green lighted in a sense.

  In the end I was never dfed, I'm just considered inactive, even though they know I don't believe in the religion anymore, etc.
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  The Searcher

  Absolutely priceless!!

  Thanks for this reference.
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  Apognophos

  Ha, very nice. I've seen similar sentiments in the literature -- people post the quotes here all the time -- but I've never seen this sentiment written out so thoroughly by the Society, nor have I seen them use the point that if you were born in Burma, you would be a Buddhist, etc. This is good material for posting on Facebook.
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  NVR2L8

  Love this quote. ..thnx
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  Gypsy Sam

  Unbelievable. Precisely what I want to post on my Facebook and email to some family before the December 2013 WT gets read.

  Wow. Reference about your religion primarily dictated by where you were born is exactly what I wanted.

  Thank you!
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  mindnumbed

  Thanks! I searched Watchtower Library and came up with this reference, Booklet titled "The Time for True Submission to God" from 1983

  In another thread Atlantis provided a link to the pdf which is still active. http://www.sendspace.com/file/kc20bc

  *** sm pp. 15-18 The Need to Search for the Truth ***
  The Need to Search for the Truth
  1 Actually, we need to know the truth about everything we have dealings with. A businessman wants to know the truth when he is settling accounts. He does not let sentiment or prejudice blind him, otherwise he is likely to lose money. When we get married, we want to know the truth about our future partner. If we allow ourselves to be deceived, we will likely be unhappy later on. Yes, if we do not know the truth about a matter, we invariably lose out in one way or another. This is also true with respect to religion. The problem is, many people for one reason or another are not inclined to discuss religious matters.

  2 Here someone may say: ‘But I have a religion. I belong to the same religion my parents and my grandparents belonged to. How can that be wrong?’ Yes, at birth most of us received some religious faith as a heritage from our parents. Often, the name of that religion is put on our identity papers without our even being asked.

  3 But do we deserve honor or credit for belonging to a religion that we received from our parents, if we have never done anything to check whether that religion is right or wrong? A man born in Italy would likely be born into a Catholic family, and he would grow up a Catholic. A man born in Burma would likely be of the Buddhist religion. If a man is born in a Muslim family, he will likely grow up as a Muslim.

  4 Surely all of this means nothing as to his submitting himself to God. It is purely an accident. The man who truly surrenders himself to God is the one who carefully examines all aspects of the religion he was born into. If he finds it is true, he remains with it. But if he finds it is false, he sets out to find the true religion.

  5 Some find it hard to reason on the subject of religion. They are strongly convinced theirs is the right religion and no more discussion is needed. In this, we may be a little like a fanatical supporter of a certain sports team. As you know, when a fanatical supporter watches his own team play another one, he supports his own, however badly it plays. If the opponents win, he may say that they cheated, or the referee was on their side, or something else happened. He thus ignores the good qualities of the other team, and all the bad qualities of his own.

  6 However, to see the true facts in a sports engagement, you have to be impartial. And this is even more so in the case of religion. If our mind is captive to prejudice, we will never see the truth. Is it reasonable to say whether something is right or wrong before you have looked into it, or before you have even thought about it?

  7 Yes, we may have received our religion from our parents, and we respect our parents. We owe them much, and many of the things they have given us are very good. But that does not mean we have to accept everything they say without thinking. Our parents are human, as we are. They make mistakes, as we do. In fact, many of the problems that we have to live with today are because of things that our parents’ generation did. They did not do them deliberately to make things hard for us. They just made mistakes, because of being human.

  8 Hence, a wise man will examine the things he has received from his parents, including his religion. He will keep the good things and reject those things that are not good. This is essential if he is to find the truth about religion.

  [Study Questions]
   1. (a) Illustrate why it is to our advantage to know the truth about everything we have dealings with. (b) What problem often arises in discussions about religion?
   2, 3. Is it any credit to a person to belong to a religion merely because he inherited it from his parents?
   4. How can a man be sure he has truly submitted to God?
   5, 6. Why should we be reasonable and open-minded when we discuss religion?
   7, 8. How will a wise man view the things he received from his parents?
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  bats in the belfry

  Some like to see the original - here it is:

  

  

  

  
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  WinstonSmith

  Great post! They hate it when you use their own words against them. It means they can't give a smug and arrogant answer but have to fluff and fumble with their cognitive dissonance.
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  tootired2care

  Marked.