March 17th, 2021: The Danger of Curiosity
Curiosity is powerful and an incredible motivator. It can take us to either personal greatness or severe self-destruction.
Many scientific discoveries began with curiosity. Many men and women, who devote their lives to help others, have started their journey by being curious about a world with less suffering.
However, when we look at the other side of the coin, curiosity has also been a source of many unpleasant and painful events in human existence. Sometimes we are so pulled by our curiosity that we disregard the lack of good outcomes. We can say that Adam and Eve were curious about what it meant to live their lives with the desire to be a god to themselves. That is not that much different from many people today. They want to have utopia while having no interest in the reality of human brokenness.
Curiosity can come from our disconnectedness and our discontentment. I have seen young people who decided to walk away from a loving and caring home because they were curious about what it means to be loved by another. Most of the time, the meaning of it is the freedom to be involved with another sexually. They have not discovered the truth about what that means. Most of the time, the outcomes are not good because they can't be responsible for them emotionally and spiritually. They are not able to bear the consequences of their own actions meaningfully.
Curiosity can also come from our carelessness and indifference. Somehow there is a confusion between being free and being careless. There is a total disregard for personal safety and the well-being of others. We would not listen to anyone. We tell people to leave us alone. Our curiosity is about what it means to be independent of the care and the accountability of others. "I can handle it. I know what I am doing", we say.
We don't have the moral fibers in our culture to manage all of the information we get from our own curiosity. We live in a time when uncertainties are more available than anything else. Maybe, our desire to live in a godless society has brought us more challenges than presumed benefits. Curiosity kills more than the cat.
Proverbs 27: 20
"Just as Death and Destruction are never satisfied, so human desire is never satisfied."
James 1: 14-15
"Instead, each person is tempted by his own desire, being lured and trapped by it. When that desire becomes pregnant, it gives birth to sin; and when that sin grows up, it gives birth to death."
