17 November 2005

The disease of curiosity

I came across this quotation last night in Charles Freeman's excellent "The Closing of the Western Mind : The Rise of Faith and the Fall of Reason":

There is another form of temptation, even more fraught with danger. This is the disease of curiosity... It is this which drives us to try and discover the secrets of nature; those secrets which are beyond our understanding, which can avail us nothing and which man should not wish to learn.

- St Augustine (late Forth, early Fifth Century AD)
Who does this sound like?

Every politician that seeks to silence the inconvenient with charges of sedition. Every leader that silences dissent with starvation and torture. Every cleric that calls the faithful to kill for God.

1 comment:

I am the Queen of EVERYTHNG...OK!! said...

unfortunately, the truth of the many has often been silenced by the laws of the few....