Posted by Friend addendum [Friend] on November 25, 1999 at 15:49:31 {yaNwUlwC5chxaL3hj3H2OgnjR4Br/g}:
In Reply to: *The Greater Issue posted by Friend on November 25, 1999 at 12:13:20:
AP
You said
The idea expressed by the [November 1999] KM, at one point, was that we should avoid making use of someone else's research for meeting parts, because we should do our own research, and not have someone else do it for us.
The following statements are found in the November 1999 KM insert:
"Can we say [we are trained to distinguish both right and wrong] if others do our research for us?"and: "Using another person’s research for a talk or for other meeting preparations really defeats the purpose of personal study." (Bold added by Friend)
and: "Using another person’s research does not fit the description given at Proverbs 2:4,5 to personally ‘keep seeking and searching for the very knowledge of God as for hid treasures." (Bold added by Friend)
I believe the idea expressed is not that we should avoid researched material but that we should not depend upon researched material without becoming personally involved in prying for understanding via our own personal investigation of information, which likely will include researched material. The expression above "Using another person’s research" is, I believe, in context saying "Using another person’s research like a crutch." That discouraged is dependency upon research without personal involvement in reaching conclusions via personal investigation of information.
So, I do not believe the article in question was saying that we should avoid considering someone else’s research but that we should not depend upon it (or use it) instead of digging through information ourselves, which will likely include some researched material. Of course the point was also made that we should be selective about the research material we chose to consider.
The habit of depending upon someone else’s research/work has become increasingly noticeable amongst our friends and is manifested in the simplest of ways, like finding particular scriptures references in the ministry. Frankly, the Society was concerned about this when first putting the New World Translation on diskette. They did it anyway because other Bible translations were being published on magnetic media and because researching the Bible is in some ways made easier in that format. Nevertheless, one downside is that some friends now have greater difficulty finding particular texts (or connecting relevant thoughts from separate texts) because their hardcopy has very limited search features.
As a parting thought, in general I believe that dependency upon the Society’s publications is also too great. Even in that case we should not manifest blind dependency but rather dig for information so that our personal beliefs are firm. (Compare Acts 17:11) Also, oftentimes a thorough scouring of the Society’s publications reveals concept on a particular subject not realized from considering a single article on that subject. Too much dependency on a single article oftentimes leads to misconceptions and bad conclusions which could be remedied by researching more articles on the same subject.
Friend