I was born/raised a Muslim. Before I got married I remember thinking that morality is important and that Islam is definitely about teaching morality. Then I watched a loved one ruin her life by following Islam. She believed demons possessed her and she sought help from exorcists instead of going to a hospital. This was shocking to me because I never believed in demons even when I was a Muslim and I never even knew that there were people that claim to be exorcists. This made me realize that my ideas were not from Islam and that my morals are far superior to Muhammad's morals. So Islam is not perfect yet it claims perfection, which means Islam is not true.
Fast-forward a tiny bit and I knew I had to raise my kids basically on my own. the other parent was sabotaging instead of helping, so it was going to be especially difficult.
Around the same time I remember thinking "I HAVE TO RETHINK EVERYTHING!!!"
I knew that I didn't want my kids to have the educational experience that I had in US public schools. I wanted to be the primary educator instead of expecting schools to do the job for me.
My conception of education at the time was very rudimentary, but I did know that philosophy was very important. I also knew that I didn't know much about it. So I knew I had to first learn philosophy to be able to teach it. So I started searching for books. I found a book about homeschooling which recommended The Classical Education. It's the education that Western people provided to their children from as far back as Ancient Greece, and it's the education that produced the great minds of The Enlightenment like Isaac Newton, Albert Einstein, and the founding fathers of the USA. These people were significant to me because I've always loved Physics and the USA, my home country. No longer surprising to me, The Classical Education agreed with me that philosophy was central -- the subject that all other subjects depend on.
Around this time I remember thinking, "How did people like Isaac Newton do it?" I was thinking about all the amazing things that people like Newton created/discovered. The ideas immediately started flowing out of me -- my intuition. I immediately started writing it down. I went for 4.5 hours straight like that. I had created my theory of knowledge (How does learning work?). I felt like I had escaped the Matrix.
I still subscribe to this theory of knowledge, but I have two articles that explain things better and are infused with the wisdom that I gained from the last 13 or so years of studying the greatest thinkers of all time. Here's the short one for a general audience. Here's the long one for a specific business audience. I recommend both as a guide to learning more about epistemology / the scientific approach.
Shortly after this I found the philosophy book The Beginning of Infinity, by David Deutsch. Almost immediately I learned that David Deutsch co-founded a parenting philosophy known as Taking Children Seriously, with primary co-founder Sarah Fitz-Claridge.
I spent countless hours reading and reflecting on this parenting philosophy. This led to huge improvement in the way I interacted with my kids. There were clear improvements early on, but it took many many many years for a lot of the improvement to materialize. My daughters are now teenagers and I think they're doing great. I recall my oldest telling me recently that she's noticed that our relationship is far better than the relationships between her friends and their parents. She noticed that all her friends lie and hide things from their parents, and that she doesn't do that with me. I already knew this but it was good to hear it from my daughter.
I highly recommend everybody learn this parenting philosophy, even if you don't have kids or never intend to have kids. The ideas apply to all types of relationships, not just the parent-child relationship. It applies to the relationship with yourself too. I recommend that you read and ask questions. Sarah and David are amazing people, very knowledgeable and very kind. You can find them on twitter. You can also ask me questions. I'm happy to help guide you through learning these ideas.
Recently I've been helping people before and after leaving Islam with tons of posts/comments in this sub. Here's the April 2024 edition: 40+ (24🆕) Posts helping people before and after leaving Islam .
That led me to realizing something. My focus has been wrong. So I decided my new focus, and it led to starting a new non-profit organization called Uniting The Cults (UnitingTheCults.com). The goal is to be an agent of cultural change with a vision of a world without apostasy laws, where people recognize love as the goal and rationality as the method to achieve.
I leave you with an important message from the great Bruce Lee.
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