It's not normal to want to understand everything

[Roguish]

Good recap, and sorry for derailing the thread a bit earlier on. I stand behind my point, but perhaps it should have gone into another thread, it being a somewhat “extreme” implication and application of what is the primary point of discussion here.

Our intellect is naturally attracted to the truth.

To me this is the most important point here. A healthy intellect is attracted to truth, which is not the same as being attracted to more information. To be attracted to truth is to exert one’s faculty of discrimination, for truth is distinct from falsehood, and is recognized by making this very distinction.

Curiosity, on the other hand, is of a greedy, or even a gluttonous nature: it wants more information and is fascinated every time it does find more. Truth is not its primary interest. Its primary interest is the gratifying feeling of discovery, and the possibility of using the newly acquired knowledge for increased control over life, death, health, environment, etc. Curiosity, indeed, is an urge toward mental self-gratification.

Curiosity is also something that refuses to stand in awe of God’s secrets. It “appreciates” God’s secrets only for the “challenge” they offer. Curiosity-driven discoveries are acts of conquest – secrets exposed – not acts of worship.

 

[Edward_H]

Wow…so well said. thank you for your excellent contribution and points here!

I wish I had laid it out so well, as you did here:

Curiosity, on the other hand, is of a greedy, or even a gluttonous nature: it wants more information and is fascinated every time it does find more. Truth is not its primary interest. Its primary interest is the gratifying feeling of discovery, and the possibility of using the newly acquired knowledge for increased control over life, death, health, environment, etc. Curiosity, indeed, is an urge toward mental self-gratification.

And the last paragraph too…all of it, the whole post!

Thank you so much.

 

[anikins]

I feel so genuinely sad for you. It’s incomprehensible to me that someone would actually believe, and legitimately believe it, that curiosity is an “excess of interest“, and to believe that that is a bad thing. My heart breaks for you.

I’m actually sad thinking about you.

 

[Pug]

Oddly enough, the Pope spoke about curiosity the other day at mass, both of the disciples and of children. I don’t think there is a text for his words, but I don’t know. I’ve just seen the press reports. Here is one:

Pope at Mass: Watch out against curiosities in the virtual world - Vatican News

During Monday’s morning Mass, Pope Francis said children are curious and they find many bad things online. They should be helped not to become ...

www.vaticannews.va

 

[Edward_H]

Do you agree that someone’s curiosity could cause a jumping around from topic to topic?

And you feel “sad” because I think that sort of jittery, frenetic way is not the way that God wants us to be?

Wow!

You seriously read too fast to understand what the Greeks taught about the virtue of “studiosity” (a term and concept you’ve never heard of because you skipped around in your education) and the vice of curiosity. That’s sad.

 

[Roguish]

Many people derive their sense of being “nice, civilized, reasonable” men (or women), indeed of being “good human beings”, entirely from living in accordance with the established opinions of the vast majority of their nation or peer group (e.g. the middle classes). When these established opinions are threatened or even just questioned, it does not matter how sound the argument against them is; the counterargument will be rejected for sure. People just cannot handle the possibility that they’ve been wrong all along. They would rather persist in a mistake than backtrack, and in a way I understand that: it really is very painful to admit that you’ve been raising your kids wrong, and that you yourself were raised wrong.

In the context of this discussion, the majority opinion is of course that “curiosity is good” and, by extension, that “children should be encouraged to be curious”. This view completely pervades all modern thought on upbringing, education, child psychology, etc. It is a view deeply entrenched in the modern school system, in how teachers are trained to teach, how pediatricians evaluate children, etc. Therefore, no matter how sound the argument against curiosity is, it will not be accepted.

I recently lost a pediatrician friend when I told her that whether a lot of reading is good for a child or not, depends rather on what the child is reading, and in what direction his/her interests are developing. I told her this when she had proudly announced that her 6-year old was a voracious reader, while her slightly younger daughter seemed less eager to spend her time reading books. I haven’t heard from her since I pointed this out. I’m sad for the little daughter, who will have to listen to “encouragements to be more curious” for the next two decades of her life.

That the Pope spoke out against curiosity very explicitly just 10 days ago, and that @Pug was so kind as to link to the Vatican News article describing that, is truly divine intervention

 

[Roguish]

That the Pope spoke out against curiosity very explicitly just 10 days ago, and that @Pug was so kind as to link to the Vatican News article describing that, is truly divine intervention

But I’m thinking now, it is regrettable that he wasn’t more explicit (as far as I can tell from the article) about what “bad curiosity” is, apart from the example of gossip.

It will be easy for curiosity-proponents to satisfy themselves with the thought that the Pope was “surely” only referring to curiosity that would lead them to look at adult websites, or violent movies, or anything “obviously wrong”, and persist in the belief that there is still nothing wrong with a “general hunger for information”.

 

[anikins]

I don’t think you understand what curiosity is. Curiosity isn’t jumping around frantically from topic to topic. Curiosity is having a question, and then wanting to find an answer to that question. Curiosity is digging. Curiosity is the desire for truth. Curiosity is why so many of us here are Catholic.

I actually feel little better since your last post. It’s clear to me that you actually don’t understand what curiosity is. I believe that you’re probably a curious person, but you are upset at something different than what you think you are upset at.

 

[Edward_H]

Better to tame our attention and go deeper to the essence of matters than to let our emotions lead us around being merely curious, like an untamed dog sniffing around.

 

[QwertyGirl]

I hope you don’t work in a hospital.