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Welcome to my site.
I'll tell you upfront that I tend to be a freethinker and
rather independent. I'm not impressed by titular
authority and I won't ascribe to/follow social rules/morés if I think they are
stupid, impractical, outdated. I say what I think and you can take
it or leave it. I really don't care which you choose - but if what
I think about something offends you - too bad, you'll have to deal with it or
leave. Just so you understand that and we get it out of the
way right at the beginning. Continue at your own risk.
My primary goal is not to convince you to agree with me, I
mainly want to try to make people think - to make people question. My belief is that the
only way to truly study a topic is to read everything you can find
about it - from the extreme pro to the extreme con and everything in
between. I believe that only then can you get all the
information available and be able to make an informed decision of
your own.
I hate to see people live their lives on
auto-pilot and never question or think about whether the beliefs of
their fathers really make any sense and really work for them.
If you've truly questioned something and wholeheartedly researched
and thought about it before coming to a decision, I can respect your
decision, even if you've come to a different decision than I have.
If you believe something just because that's what your parents
taught you or just because it's a tradition, I can't respect that because you aren't thinking for
yourself.
My older kids will confirm that I don't advocate
them ever just taking someone else's word for something, including
mine. I want them to do their own leg work and come to their
own conclusions. I've attempted to teach them how to
discern rational arguments from other forms such as circular
reasoning, straw man theories, "no true scotsman", non sequitur,
etc.
I don't claim to be perfect at it myself, but I do make
an honest attempt to keep my arguments rational. I believe the
greatest and most important thing I can do as a parent is to teach my
kids to be critical thinkers - to think for themselves - and to have the
self confidence to trust their own thought processes.
Are they going to make some mistakes? Of course!
But that's ok, it's an important part of the growth process.
Personally, I've gained the most knowledge and personal growth from
dealing with & analyzing mistakes I've made. I've noticed that
people who've been tightly controlled and/or paranoid about making
mistakes usually come across as rather stunted & shallow.
I also like
to play devil's advocate at times in an attempt to
unearth more sides of an issue. I've gotten pretty good at
arguing viewpoints I don't personally currently subscribe to simply because
I'm trying to unearth more information or I'm trying to get someone
to think outside of their box.
This site is very much under construction right
now. You may find missing links and half written sentences
right now as I work on a section whenever I get time. Make
sure you check out the What's New section
for a list of additions and changes.
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