pawelk1986 wrote:
In Polish we have proverb "Curiosity is the first step to hell"
It sounds like the incredibly pessimistic and bible-documentary view that God gave the devil such carte blanc to reinvent physical reality and historical evidence that the facts (outside of the bible) will lead anyone to hell who takes them seriously.
Having read the bible cover to cover and also having read a lot of the regional beliefs and systems I'm incredibly skeptical that this is the case. Seems like the holiest people of each world religion say something far closer in line with each other than what the religions themselves seem to devolve into. Christian mystics end up sounding like famous Hindus and Buddhists, theosophists and occultists end up saying the most surprisingly bible-edifying things albeit they zig-zag through interpretation of the content in a way most people wouldn't think of unless they do an eclectic enough survey of belief systems to see where that comes from.
My own antidote to the claim that curiosity is the first step to hell is Jesus's Parable of the Talents. Refusing to question authority on rational grounds is an act tantamount to being the guy who took his 1,000 talents and buried them. Needless to say the message of the parable was that God has a somewhat dim view of people running from facts to save their own skin (already present: those who love their lives will lose them) but you can also bet that the twelve apostles were told often that they were going to hell - they were the theosophists and new agers of their time culturally speaking and even worse standing behind a man who the Pharisees would have viewed the way Christians view Apallonius of Tyana.
Moral of the story: parochialism and pastoralism does really rough things to ancient religious texts. On the other hand - the internet and Amazon.com have definitely helped save the day.