Thought for today:
"If it was curiosity that killed the cat, then all I can say is that the cat died in pursuit of a noble purpose. While curiosity may kill a cat, it undoubtedly charms the child. It is the finest adversary that ignorance has ever known and lies in wait for every answer. The most popular names that curiosity is known by are 'Who'-'Where'-'When'-'What'-'How' and 'Why'. The wisest of children will never stop asking these questions if they truly wish to learn. We soon discover there are no foolish questions and it is only foolish people that stop asking what they don't know.
I have always been inquisitive and have never been fearful of asking. Although Roman Catholic in my religious observance, I know that I am so because my parents were so. I also know that I could so easily have been Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Jew had I been born to different parents in a different place and time.
When I was aged nine, a particularly strict Irish priest who used to minister in the Parish of Heckmondwike where I attended, told the congregation one week that Catholicism is the one true religion and though he did not specifically say so outright, he implied that all others were false.
After the church service I waited behind and when the opportunity arose I asked the priest why sincere followers of the Muslim, Sikh, Jewish, Protestant, Baptist or any other faith would be denied entrance into heaven because of their profound beliefs fostered to them by their parents since their birth. The elderly priest in his late 70s refused to answer me and after reproaching me for not having accepted his word unquestioningly, told me to be about my own business and to show greater respect to my adults in future.
It was then that I determined never to stop asking questions of anyone, particularly the church and the state. After all, where would we be without questions. We'd still be living in the Dark Ages. The simple fact is that millions saw the apple fall from the tree before Newton asked why? It was his curiosity which tested the bounds of reality; his scientific principles which formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that led to mankind's greater understanding of the heavens and earth. Newton taught me that every problem has a keyhole through which the curious eye is spy. The world today would be a much more enlightened place I suspect if the nosy parker became less curious about the goings in their neighbours' back yard and more curious about the ideas that sprang from their own home and the minds of their children.
It was Voltaire I think who said that men should be judged by their questions rather than their answers. How true this is as it is the curious who have most to find. Asking questions has always been my way. All that is new and uncommon brings pleasure to my imagination, fills me with agreeable surprise, gratifies my search for knowledge and gives me an idea I didn't before possess. So if you'll forgive me, I will go on living a while longer yet....just to satisfy my curiosity of what is still to come before the time to meet my Maker arrives." William Forde: January 3rd, 2016.
"If it was curiosity that killed the cat, then all I can say is that the cat died in pursuit of a noble purpose. While curiosity may kill a cat, it undoubtedly charms the child. It is the finest adversary that ignorance has ever known and lies in wait for every answer. The most popular names that curiosity is known by are 'Who'-'Where'-'When'-'What'-'How' and 'Why'. The wisest of children will never stop asking these questions if they truly wish to learn. We soon discover there are no foolish questions and it is only foolish people that stop asking what they don't know.
I have always been inquisitive and have never been fearful of asking. Although Roman Catholic in my religious observance, I know that I am so because my parents were so. I also know that I could so easily have been Muslim, Hindu, Sikh or Jew had I been born to different parents in a different place and time.
When I was aged nine, a particularly strict Irish priest who used to minister in the Parish of Heckmondwike where I attended, told the congregation one week that Catholicism is the one true religion and though he did not specifically say so outright, he implied that all others were false.
After the church service I waited behind and when the opportunity arose I asked the priest why sincere followers of the Muslim, Sikh, Jewish, Protestant, Baptist or any other faith would be denied entrance into heaven because of their profound beliefs fostered to them by their parents since their birth. The elderly priest in his late 70s refused to answer me and after reproaching me for not having accepted his word unquestioningly, told me to be about my own business and to show greater respect to my adults in future.
It was then that I determined never to stop asking questions of anyone, particularly the church and the state. After all, where would we be without questions. We'd still be living in the Dark Ages. The simple fact is that millions saw the apple fall from the tree before Newton asked why? It was his curiosity which tested the bounds of reality; his scientific principles which formulated the laws of motion and universal gravitation that led to mankind's greater understanding of the heavens and earth. Newton taught me that every problem has a keyhole through which the curious eye is spy. The world today would be a much more enlightened place I suspect if the nosy parker became less curious about the goings in their neighbours' back yard and more curious about the ideas that sprang from their own home and the minds of their children.
It was Voltaire I think who said that men should be judged by their questions rather than their answers. How true this is as it is the curious who have most to find. Asking questions has always been my way. All that is new and uncommon brings pleasure to my imagination, fills me with agreeable surprise, gratifies my search for knowledge and gives me an idea I didn't before possess. So if you'll forgive me, I will go on living a while longer yet....just to satisfy my curiosity of what is still to come before the time to meet my Maker arrives." William Forde: January 3rd, 2016.
