IMHO one of the best publications the WTBTS has ever released -- it actually gave useful background information on other religions. I honestly would recommend that people have a copy on theor bookshelves. However, it has never been studied -- either at Congregation Book Studies, in the Theocratic Ministry School as Instruction Talk material -- Why? Anyone in the know as to why -- or does anyone have any speculation? BTW sorry if there has alraedy been a post on this topic.
Mankind's Search For God Book
by stillajwexelder 9 Replies latest jw friends
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Huxley
I always wondered why we didn't study it at the bookstudy as well. Maybe the FDS thought if their sheep were exposed to such a variety of ideas about God they would jump ship. I dunno!
Huxley
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invictus
Probably to prevent brothers curiosity specially if it is seen as a sign of approval from society : well, society printed this book so it must be ok if I do some research for my book study questions?
Invictus
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sens
yer but they still put their twisted spin onto and in everything...as usual. I did have it ...but i threw it out 2.
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Huxley
One more thought! "Mankind's Search..is still just one religion's take on all the others. It's not just an unbiased overview of world religions. They are leading people to their own version of truth. But of course this is my post-witness view!
Huxley
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stillajwexelder
Huxley I accept what you ar esaying but again IMHO it was still one of the least biased books and they did attempt to get respected members of the discussed religions to comment etc. so I say again , I agree it still contained WTBTS SPIN but not nearly as bad as the rest.
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Enishi
I agree, this was one of the Society's best publications. Even though they do insert their own spin on things, there's a lot of interesting and indepth information. I used to study it frequently before.
Of course, you can easily find better researched material just about anywhere else.
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kgfreeperson
That's the book my JW friend gave me, saying it was the best researched of the Watchtower books. It was early in our friendship and I read it and then delivered myself of an "incisive critique" which was the end of our conversations about Watchtower publications. (yes, dammit, I do wish I'd kept my mouth shut and just asked questions.) However, my opinion is that it is "well-researched" the way the bible is well-researched for the Awake and Watchtower articles. Snippets of "information" with heavy editorializing.
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JamesThomas
I wouldn't put much value or credence on the Societies description or evaluation of anything. The Org. views everything other than itself through the lens of extreme prejudice and bigotry. That said, the book may be good for a "scratch the surface" type of understanding of other religions; but only while being aware of the hidden agenda. For example: as I recall (it has been a long time since I have seen the book) they mention that the Hindu's believe in many gods, which is true, but I don't think they mention the extremely important point that all these gods are seen simply as aspects of the One true God. The Hindu's idea of God is much bigger and wider than the Christians narrow and tiny idea of God. You won't get the gist of this from reading the book. It is geared to motivate the reader to see the Hindu religion as childish and silly. When really, in my opinion, the Christian god is far more ridiculous and childish, having not the depth of the Hindu's concepts of God and religion. I am not a Hindu, by the way. Nor will I ever again be a member of any belief system or religion. j
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kgfreeperson
JamesThomas, that was one of the points I went on at some length about!