What is the difference between teaching and indoctrinating? It’s a question that we don’t often think too deeply about, because the answer feels pretty obvious. It’s something bad that other people do to teach children falsehood before they know any better. Teaching is concerned with truth, and indoctrination is concerned with ridiculous dogma. But from an objective perspective, it’s hard to tell who is doing the indoctrinating and who isn’t.
Tag: religion
The Political Objectives Test
I just the the “political objectives” test. Here is my result.
Celebration of Peace?
I was talking to my kids today about Armistice Day, and the celebration of peace. The focus was on not being at war. And then the feds decided that war should be the new norm, so now it’s Veteran’s Day. I told them that instead of celebrating an idea (peace), a lot of people celebrate a job on this day, and that job is to go kill strangers for the government. It is viewed as an honorable sacrifice that these people make on our behalf to “protect” us.
On Scientific Controversy
Two things to remember when listening to scientific topics that have become controversial: 1) when terms like “heretic” or “heresy” are used, the conversation has left the realm of science and entered the realm of religion, and 2) when terms like “traitor” or “denial” are used, the conversation has left the realm of science and…
Free Will #2, Rothbard, Movie View: Escape Artist
Send him mail. “Finding the Challenges” is an original column appearing every other Wednesday at Everything-Voluntary.com, by Verbal Vol. Verbal is a software engineer, college professor, corporate information officer, life long student, farmer, libertarian, literarian, student of computer science and self-ordering phenomena. Archived columns can be found here. FTC-only RSS feed available here. This has…
An Open Letter to the LGBT Community
This was written by a friend, Aaron Batten, on his Facebook wall: Dear LGBT Community, I have been quite surprised at the overall support I’ve seen for the SCOTUS decision on same-sex marriage. Even five years ago, I don’t think the support would have been there. It’s a cultural change I believe is refreshing. Even…
An Attempt at a Universal Ethic VI: Answering Objections
Send him mail. “One Voluntaryist’s Perspective” is an original column appearing most Mondays at Everything-Voluntary.com, by the founder and editor Skyler J. Collins. Archived columns can be found here. OVP-only RSS feed available here. An Attempt at a Universal Ethic I: Introduction An Attempt at a Universal Ethic II: Subjective Identification An Attempt at a…
No Hitting! – Full Book
No Hitting! A Short Guide on Why Spanking is Unnecessary by Skyler J. Collins, Published 2015 Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Paperback ($6) and other digital formats found here. Preface Here it is, my third published work and second written entirely by myself. Everything Voluntary: From Politics to Parenting was an anthology I…
About the Author
Table of Contents Previous – Further Reading About the Author Skyler J. Collins lives with his beautiful wife and three wonderful children in Salt Lake City, Utah. He’s a voluntaryist and radical unschooler. He enjoys reading, writing, and podcasting about anything on liberty, economics, philosophy, religion, science, health, and childhood development. He and his wife…
Chapter 6 – Divine Mandate
Table of ContentsPrevious – Chapter 5, Respect and Obedience Chapter 6 – Divine Mandate Many religious people, Christian and not, consider the practice of spanking to be divinely mandated. They’ll quote scriptures or religious leaders in the attempt to support that belief. If you believe without a doubt that spanking is required by your god,…