It was never studied in the Congregation's book study.
"Mankind's Search for God" book
by My Name is of No Consequence 40 Replies latest watchtower bible
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blondie
No, as a book study group or at a meeting, this book was never studied, I was a jw at that time and wondered why we had never and asked an "elder." He said (without anything in writing by the WTS, that the book was really for non-jws. I don't know what he meant by that. The Greatest Man book was studied and had a very different format from past and current publications. Chapter material, at the end of the chapter, the questions. Many jws preferred it, but the WTS went back to the original format, paragraph/question, next paragraph. (September 1992 Kingdom Ministry) (I won't put a link but you can go the Watchtower Online Library and find it) (I will add this statement made when the Mankind Search book came out (meant to be used with individual bible studies or starting them "Because of the book’s careful coverage of each religion, those who possess it in their language will be able to start Bible studies in the chapter appropriate to each person’s religious background."
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wannaexit
It was never studies and was offered for at the doors at some point. But a quickly as it came , it was as quickly archived. -
cyberjesus
Jw.org people never study any of their books... just read their paragraphs, read the leading questions and re-read the pre-set answers found in the same paragraph and repeat.
No análisis, critical thought, check the references or falsiability of their statements.
Thats a contradiction.
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blondie
That's true cyberjesus. A few jws did actually look up all the scriptures and side material (I did) and did not regurgitate the info in the paragraphs. In fact, too many jws prefaced their "comments" with "the paragraph says."
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Beth Sarim
It was meant to be studied. It was clearly set-up in the format of any JW study material. With the paragraphs , cited scriptures and the question(s) format listed below the bottom of the page corresponding to the paragraphs. Yeah, I always wondered what happened to that book why it was dumped so fast.
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blondie
Beth Sarim, I actually asked the elders when the WTS would announce when we would study that book. I kept getting the runaround. I finally stopped asking. I don't even think that any parts on the meetings discussed this book paragraph by paragraph. I did show the book to a workmate to read the part on the Bahai faith and he said it was fairly accurate, but no as a means to get him hooked into a WT "bible" study. The comments in the WT publications said that the book was meant to be used with students that were of non-christian faiths.
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Beth Sarim
Blondie great point.
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Disillusioned JW
Before the Mankind's Search for God book there was the 1951 WT book called What Has Religion Done for Mankind?. To me the 1951 book is not as reliable in its descriptions of other religions, and it is thus not nearly as good a book as the 1991 book. Like the 1990 book the 1951 book also includes questions at the bottom of the pages. The 1951 is very strongly written as a WT doctrinal book. Most of the book is about the Bible and the WT's teachings about the Bible, but the book does include the following chapters.
8. Egyptian Cult Menaces the True Worship
14. The Spread of Hinduism
15.Buddhism, A Salvation by Psychology
16. Confucianism, A System of Morality
22. Islam, Mohammed's Religion of Submission
25. Red Religion and the "Man of Lawlessness"
Chapter 15 on pages 205-206, regards the ideas of Buddha, say the following which I think is useful.
'That all suffering is caused by desire and hence when a person stops craving anything, peace comes to his restless soul. Thus we see that he came to his conclusion by the process of psychology. His idea was that salvation from pain and conscious misery comes from no outside gods but from controlling one's own mind and through it the body. He summed up his discoveries in four simple propositions: (1) All living is painful. (2) Suffering is due to craving or desire. (3) When desire ceases, there comes release from suffering. (4) The way to the ceasing of suffering is by the Eightfold Path of "right view, right intention, right speech, right action, right livelihood, right effort, right mindfulness, right concentration".'
Page 207, in mentioning ideas of Buddhism, makes the following comment which is in harmony with theories of modern science and of the idea that there is no personal Creator God!
"As for the way this material universe came about: It arose form empty space according to unchangeable natural laws, an EVOLUTION. The precipitate or condensing or settling of this formed matter .... So to Buddha there was no personal Creator." [Note: In the quote I left out references to "evil".]
Chapter 25 is about Communism and about totalitarianism in general. Page 314 in that chapter, in a reference to "totalitarian forms of government" says the following.
"The purpose of Satan the red dragon was by this means to hold the people in unbreakable bondage to his organization Babylon. In the short period of time remaining till the battle of Armageddon he must turn all mankind into destruction by lining them up against Jehovah's rule of the earth by Christ Jesus his King."
Page 345 of the book (under the heading of "How to Follow Up Your Reading of This Book") regarding how the book was intended to be used, says in part the following.
"Now that you have read the book you will want some practical suggestions so as to benefit from this information and have it work to your good. Here they are: start a study (without obligation) with the one who left the book with you, or any one of Jehovah's witnesses. Or, feeling you are able, and desire to do so, now that you have read it through, why not aid your friends, neighbors and relatives to have and enjoy this knowledge as you do? Study it with them, reading first the question, then discussing the paragraph, and lastly reading the paragraph aloud as the final comment."
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slimboyfat
I read the yellow book What Has Religion Done for Mankind before I got baptised. At the end of the book are photographs of some of the large conventions from the time. I also seem to remember an extended discussion of Nimrod and Babel as the sources of false religious practices.
Leolaia has argued that JW religion was at its most plausible in the 1950s. (She singled out the green Your Will Be Done book but it’s from the same period.)