Curiosity Killed the Cat Think back to the stone age, the era of hunters and gatherers. The early humans who lived in these times didn’t discover the atom, study calculus, or manipulate electricity like we do now. But similar to us, they were curious. When trying previously unknown berries to satisfy their hunger, those who lived then learned of a new source of food, and those who ate the poisonous fruit provided their peers with just as much valuable information. Since the beginning, it has been our human nature to be curious. We have an insatiable thirst for knowledge and a strong sense of beliefs. As a result, our curiosity leads to discoveries, and our unwavering faith gives us drive, which together provides us with the building blocks
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They’d say that because our strong beliefs can lead to the intolerance which inspired the deadly crusades (Cobb 71), or that our curiosity can lead to weapons like Greek fire (Cobb 61) and present day agent orange, humanity is evil. Maybe they’d even pull out Lord of the Flies to prove their point. But our human nature to let curiosity drive our actions isn’t good or evil. It’s essential. Of course, there are villains and saints, but as a whole, the average person is a happy medium. We aren’t good nor evil, just inquisitive souls trying to survive and enjoy our limited time. Our curiosity is how we progress. People might go down in history for their mistakes, but we will still learn from them. Paracelsus treated syphilis, but probably killed some patients to get the treatment right (Cobb 100). Helmont had the wrong idea of cleaning the weapon to heal a wound, but by only cleaning and binding the wound we gain knowledge that we shouldn’t lather wounds in “noxious chemicals and dirty herbal preparations” (Cobb 112). Progress is built on the back of our mistakes, and we wouldn’t make any mistakes without our curiosity to drive us towards discoveries. Success is never easy, but it takes dedication and faith to continue working towards the answer to a question, or a desired result of an experiment. Together, curiosity and conviction help us better understand the world we live in, and the more we
They’d say that because our strong beliefs can lead to the intolerance which inspired the deadly crusades (Cobb 71), or that our curiosity can lead to weapons like Greek fire (Cobb 61) and present day agent orange, humanity is evil. Maybe they’d even pull out Lord of the Flies to prove their point. But our human nature to let curiosity drive our actions isn’t good or evil. It’s essential. Of course, there are villains and saints, but as a whole, the average person is a happy medium. We aren’t good nor evil, just inquisitive souls trying to survive and enjoy our limited time. Our curiosity is how we progress. People might go down in history for their mistakes, but we will still learn from them. Paracelsus treated syphilis, but probably killed some patients to get the treatment right (Cobb 100). Helmont had the wrong idea of cleaning the weapon to heal a wound, but by only cleaning and binding the wound we gain knowledge that we shouldn’t lather wounds in “noxious chemicals and dirty herbal preparations” (Cobb 112). Progress is built on the back of our mistakes, and we wouldn’t make any mistakes without our curiosity to drive us towards discoveries. Success is never easy, but it takes dedication and faith to continue working towards the answer to a question, or a desired result of an experiment. Together, curiosity and conviction help us better understand the world we live in, and the more we