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Black Swan, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, Unpredictability, 9/11

Although the ordering of the myths are not important, you may first read Part 1 here.

That a mind ‘contaminated’ by religion or the idea of God cannot seriously be scientific as well.

Believing the above statement to be true is like throwing away hundreds of years of recorded history. I shall not give an exhaustive list of contributors to sciences and other academic secular fields who are religious or theological as well, but I shall just give you a sample of it - a rather excellent example, I might add - of this list.

I present you Geber, aka Abu Musa Jabir Ibn Hayyan (clicking on the link opens its Wikipedia entry in a separate window), an 8th century Shia Muslim polymath credited widely to be the “Father of Chemistry”. I urge you to read about him first as my descriptions based on my infantile knowledge of him may not do justice to him.

People should not mistake him to be the creator of Algebra, although his Latinised name, Geber, and the word ‘Algebra’ sounds similar. The word Algebra is derived from a treatise by a Persian Mathematician, Muhammad Ibn Musa Al-Khwarizmi (the word Algorithm is derived from his name), titled “Al-Kitab Al-Jabr Wal-Muqabala”.

But I would add also that Jabir’s chief influence and teacher is the 6th Infallible Imam of the Shia, Jaafar As-Sadiq (pbuh), who was a prolific polymath himself, as well as scientist and philosopher, besides being the spiritual leader of the Shia Muslims of his time.

Suffice it to say, Jabir was a brilliant and prolific scientist as well as a pious Shia Muslim. If that statement and fact were to be viewed under Dawkinsian lenses, you can’t get any more oxymoronic (extremely paradoxical) than that.

Of course, like I said, I am only giving you a sample of the list, and Geber is only one of those people whom the likes of Dawkins can’t accept that a religious mind can be scientific as well.

If I may add, people such as Newton and Einstein, although not strictly religious, are as they would describe themselves, spiritual. Even the late Carl Sagan, the prominent atheist astronomer, described, “But if by ‘God,’ one means the set of physical laws that govern the universe, then clearly there is such a God. This God is emotionally unsatisfying… it does not make much sense to pray to the law of gravity.”

Interestingly, while I believe most atheists agree with Sagan’s view, I see very little (or nothing) in Dawkinsian rhetoric that acknowledges, echoes or embraces the view of Carl Sagan to at least ‘justify’ or lend some balanced credit to his arguments.

That raising your children in your own religious tradition is child abuse.

So by this, I mean to infer that if I were to be an atheist, freethinker or secular humanist and I raise my children in the philosophies of atheism, inculcate in her the logical fallacies and evils that religious belief can bring about, argue strongly against the improbability of God’s existence and strongly advocating to her the merits of rational and scientific thought, as well as educate her on the finer points of Darwinian evolution, that wouldn’t amount to ‘child abuse’ too?

What would not constitute child abuse then?

Think through that question thoroughly. Take into your account all practical and social considerations. What would it take to achieve an ‘ideal Dawkinsian society’ in which child abuse (by inculcating children in the traditions of the parents’ religion) is virtually non-existent?

If his argument that raising your child in your religious tradition is a form of child abuse becomes mainstream and takes root - although far-fetched - in policy-makers, and even - God forbid - becomes part of the list of no-no’s (amongst perhaps torture, imprisonment without trial, etc) in the United Nations Declaration of Human Rights, what do you think would happen? Do you think the governments of the world would deem it wise to illegalise the raising of children in their parents’ religious tradition? Do you think parents of any religious tradition would actually want to comply with the new laws being passed against the raising of children in their parents’ religious tradition? What would stop parents from ‘brainwashing’ their children into accepting religion in secret?

What about teaching our children basic morals and ethics? Would that too amount to abuse because morals and ethics are subjective and evolve with the times - what might be ‘moral’ in an earlier age may not be moral now? So do we then allow our children free rein to do whatever they want and decide what is right or wrong, according to their own trial-and-error learning processes? Make it okay for them to curse and swear at their parents, bully their peers, take what’s not theirs, torture their pets, embrace homosexuality while still young, all in the name of ‘giving them the freedom to choose whatever belief systems, moral systems, ethical systems, sexual orientation or life philosophies they want to adopt’?

Geber, 8th century Shia Muslim polymath, Jaafar As-Sadiq

If you have any iota of concern for your freedom…

If you have any inkling of concern for your well-being as a human being…

If you want all the madness that is happening to and in the world to stop once and for all and be actively and consciously involved in the shaping of a new, brighter future for humanity and your children…

Then your first step to participate in what is probably the greatest revolution in the history of humankind (which is a revolution for nothing less than the absolute highest ideal of humanity - FREEDOM) is to watch this online documentary feature -

ZeitgeistMovie.com

- I firmly believe the only rational way forward for our species (and for all life on this planet) is to break away from the destructive cycle of violence, paranoia, hatred, fear, deceit, addictions, conceit and the desire for dominance at the expense of others that has been going on and on since 10,000 BC (the earliest historically documented starting point of human civilisation) in multiple variations and near-infinite iterations (wars, colonialisation, imperialisation, racism, nationalism, religious zealotry, patriotic zealotry, class divisions, etc).

The first step is to find out, understand and know the Truth. As the Bible says, The Truth shall set you free. In essence, Truth and Freedom are intertwined. Truth is the elixir and Freedom is the end result.

As the Quran says, Truth has arisen and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood is ever vanishing.

How To Be Free & Join In The Revolution For Nothing Less Than The Liberation Of Humanity In 3 Simple Steps.

Step 1. Set aside 2 hours of free time.

Step 2.  Watch every minute of the movie featured on the above-mentioned website.

Step 3. Spread the word. Join in the conversation. Participate in the Zeitgeist (Spirit of the Times). Blog about it. Social bookmark it. Assemble friends & family and hold discussions about it. Find ways and means to integrate the messages of the Zeitgeist into your personal and professional lives. Stop being so cynical. Stop being so paranoid. Learn to trust. Start trying to understand others. Volunteer in worthy causes. Vote right. Impeach Bush. Okay, the last one is optional.

freedom, humanity, ZeitgeistMovie.com, The Truth shall set you free, Truth has arisen and falsehood has vanished. Indeed, falsehood is ever vanishing, Impeach Bush

What I am about to share may be the key to the next step in the advancement of our human civilisation. What I am proposing here is a radical re-thinking of our centuries-old educational system (or should I say this very 90’s word - paradigm). Educators; i.e. teachers, principals, maybe even students, this may be useful for you, but what I aim for is a complete turn-around, a revolution if you will, in the educational systems of the world, and perhaps the best people to take action with this information are the world leaders in education themselves; i.e. the prime ministers, presidents, heads of state and educational ministers of the nations of the world.

This system can be responsible for the lowering of crime, poverty, moral depravity, personal socio-psychological discrepancies, intellectual attrition, irrational quirks of behaviour and thinking, basically all the problems that can possibly be caused by a sub-effective education.

There are a number of elements or factors which must all be put together to work in concert in order for you to achieve maximum effectiveness with this system.

These are:-

1. Taking into consideration the different phases in a child’s natural bio-, physio-, socio- and psychological growth, which are the crucial years where different changes to their environment and upbringing would be most impactful to their development? Take the first 21 years of a human being’s life, which is about the average period of time for a person to achieve sufficient maturity in all his capacities, given the most effective and optimum upbringing possible, divide this length of time into 3 equal phases of 7 years; i.e. the 1st Phase will be from his infancy to his 7th year of life, the 2nd Phase, from age 7 years to 14, and the 3rd Phase will be from his 14th year to his 21st year of life.

Sources / Inspirations for the 7-Year Phases Theory:
http://www.waldorfl..._Articles/RB7105.pdf

2. The smooth and natural transition from a family-based educational phase (where the child is given focused attention by his or her parents) to a Student Pair-based phase to a Student Group-based phase to a ‘Conventional’ Class-based ‘full social setting’ phase, punctuated by a Mandatory Military Training Phase (according to the requirements and desires of the different countries involved) and finally to (where this gets revolutionary) a mandatory ‘The Student Now Becomes the Teacher’ phase. The definitions of all these phases will be explained soon enough.

3. The rotational exposure of the Student Pairs and Groups (as mentioned above), during their respective phases, to different social settings and environments by means of occasional, periodic and pre-scheduled interactions between the different, closely-knit Pairs and Groups. What this means is that while the students are placed into Pairs or Groups (according to their respective phases), they are given the opportunity to interact with other Pairs or Groups, for the purpose of fostering their interpersonal social skills without compromising the early developmental stages of their intra-personal qualities and a building of their sense of identity, aided by the presence of a buddy or partner in their educational life.

4. A complete revamping of the syllabus or menu of subjects taught to the students during their different phases. This revamp will necessitate the grouping and modulisation of subjects into the ‘Necessary for Life’ subjects (such as languages, mathematics, basic scientific and reasoning skills, social skills, ethics, etc) and the ‘Special Interest’ subjects (e.g. geography, history, deeper sciences, etc). The student will also be able to choose which ‘S.I.’ subjects he or she wants to take and will be
Paired or Grouped accordingly with respect to his or her choice of subjects (The Pairs or Groups will be different from the main P / G they are in when taking the ‘Necessary’ subjects).

5. The Holistic approach to the child-teenager-young adult person’s education, also tackled with respect to their different phases, and deals with mainly the Physical, Intellectual, Social and Intrapersonal (i.e. Emotional / Psychological / Spiritual) dimensions of their lives, without any one dimension dominating the others, thus each aspect of the individual is given fair and equal development.

A Brief Explanation of the Phases.

The Family-Based Phase which takes place during the first 7 years of a child’s life will be dominated chiefly by the parents’ upbringing of him or her at home, or if the parents prefer, in special centres where the parents and educational facilitators cooperate in the upbringing of the children, with the facilitators coaching the parents in real time as the children receive their parents’ fullest attention in his growth and development. Perhaps it is better for the parents to actually make use of these centres in order to smoothen and facilitate the transition of the child from a very personal family-based setting to a pair-based one.

The Student Pair-Based Phase which takes place from age 7 to 14 years begins with a general and not specific profiling of the children’s potential capacities. Once profiled (maybe profiling is too strong a word), the child is paired accordingly to another, someone who has similar or complementary abilities and potentials. This partner helps to wean the child off of a dependency upon the parents while primitively building his sense of social identity and skills in dealing with an interpersonal relationship.

It is also some form of a protective barrier that does not compromise his or her social development, and this partner can be from amongst someone who was in the same group when he was in the previous Family-Based Phase. The relationship of a child with his buddy is long-term but not permanent, and in order to expose the child to different people with different personalities, he will rotate partners with other pairs every few months or so, and in the beginning, he will have to stay with his assigned partner for a longer period (say 1 year) until eventually he is comfortable rotating partners every 1 month or so.

A Mentor is assigned to the Pair, one who is experienced and familiar in bringing out the best in the unique personalities of the Pair and who himself or herself must develop an affinity and familiarity with the Pair. The Mentor will also be rotated, after the first year, and then every 1 or a few months subsequently.

The Student Group-Based Phase which begins upon the students entering 14 years of age sees him or her entering into a similar-interest or similar-capabilities or simply similar-personality Group, with a Tutor assigned to them, someone who knows how to best develop students in their particular type of Group. The ideal size of each Group is 8 to 12 students maximum. Once the young men and women enter the Group Phase, a heavier emphasis will be placed upon the students’ physical / physiological development, where competitive-but-friendly sporting and team-based activities are the recommended norm and the skills of agreeable conflicting in a healthy and controlled setting are fostered (via activities like debates, educational group competitions, mock political rallies and elections).

Other activities that are good to develop in this period may include charity drives, cultural exchanges, junior mentorship & leadership programs (where the teenagers are groomed to be young mentors & leaders and everyone is given a chance, not just those with ‘potential’), etc. As it is in the Pair Phase, the members of the Group as well as the Tutors assigned to them will be rotated according to a natural, periodic and pre-planned rhythm.

The ‘Conventional’ Class-Based Phase begins when the teenagers have grown into young adults of 21 years. This is where the previous social structures that were designed to ‘protect’ the students in a controlled and beneficial setting are completely shattered and they are expected to break free from a dependency upon their previous Groups or Pairs and learn to independently form Pairs or Groups of their own, according to their individual preferences and (hopefully) intelligent choices. This is the phase where the students have to have the initiative to pursue their passions and interests in the tertiary-to-university-level fields of their choosing and be groomed in their potential future careers via programs and activities such as industrial or vocational attachments, on the job training, ‘Earn as You Learn’ phases, vocational mentorship programs, etc.

The ‘Class’ Phase will last 2 to 3 years, according to whether or not the governments of the respective countries that would implement this system of education would require their young citizens to perform mandatory military service (which should ideally last for no more than 2 years, and even for this I have some proposals for changes to make in the future).

This will be followed by a Mandatory 1-Year Educational Service (paid) term, where the young adult, at the ideal age of 24, according to his or her capacities, will be assigned as a Teacher, Mentor or Tutor to any one of the Groups or Pairs, and if he or she desires to sign up for a longer-term contract with the Educational Service, they may do so and teach Classes or become higher-level Facilitators to the Teachers.

As you can see, this proposed system of mine may have elements of it already practiced in certain countries in certain institutions around the world. What I am especially pushing for is the holistic aspect, as well as the standardised & regulated aspect of my ideas.

Of course, my Manifesto is not without potential foreseeable & unforeseeable problems and shortcomings, which, hopefully, can be ironed out along the process of implementation.

education, revolution, paradigm, child education, teaching, thinking, psychology, politics, crime, poverty, sociology, economics

I have always been a student of Mark Joyner’s ideas, though I have never met him in person before.

I shall, in May this year. Here are two premises amongst the ocean of ideas from his amazing mind.

Unifying Social Dynamics

The Freedom Agent

Note the similarities between his suggestions and what I am aiming to achieve.

Mark Joyner