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pawelk1986
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03 Nov 2013, 3:53 am

In Polish we have proverb "Curiosity is the first step to hell"

I knew similar proverb in English Curiosity killed the cat"

I wonder where humanity would be if it were not our curiosity.

Without curiosity, and particularly the case, scientific curiosity, our lives would be boring. Where do you get such proverbs as I mentioned above. Is curiosity can be dangerous.



Magneto
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03 Nov 2013, 4:53 am

Curiosity didn't kill the cat. Not taking precautions did.

It's not trying to make and contain black holes that's the problem, it's trying to make and contain them on the one world your species inhabits. Go get somewhere in space to try it.



redriverronin
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03 Nov 2013, 7:35 pm

The first government funny how to me it is so similar to liberal and republican ideology.



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03 Nov 2013, 7:59 pm

It's hogwash!

It's a leftover from old times when the church didn't want people to ask questions, just sit quietly and accept what they are told as truth.


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redriverronin
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03 Nov 2013, 8:12 pm

Our own government does the same thing then you have people on here who just blindly believe whatever their chosen government deity tells them.



jrjones9933
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03 Nov 2013, 8:21 pm

Two sayings come to mind. The first one, I used to hear a lot: "I wish I knew then what I know now." The other one, I hear less, or rather, I've only heard it once: "I wish I didn't know now what I didn't know then." Another similar saying is, "You can't un-ring a bell."

Maybe the proverbs you mention used to apply to scientific curiosity, but they still seem relevant to other people's private lives.



naturalplastic
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03 Nov 2013, 8:47 pm

Another saying we americans have is "idle hands are the devil's playground."

Meaning:folks who dont have anything constructive to do with their time tend to get into mischief.

That might be close what the Polish saying means.



techstepgenr8tion
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03 Nov 2013, 10:15 pm

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.



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04 Nov 2013, 12:13 am

Curiosity fed the fox.


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