Theos-Talk Archives (December 1996 Message tl00740)

>>When Eve bit into the fruit, she was basically
>>saying to herself, "*I* want to know.  If *I* don't find out for *myself*
what
>>this is, I don't think I will ever be complete."  This was her first selfish
>>act.  Selfishness was wrong.

Seems to me that curiosity and the urge to know what makes things tick, or
what they're made of, and experiment with them was somehow implanted into
us. All civilisation, good, bad or indifferent, is built up on someone's (or
some group's) need to experiment with items in nature which surrounded them,
from stone axes, to lightning, to ceramic chips. It would be a little too
short sighted to call that selfish. I think it was rather a need to know,
and to improve one's way of operating. Incidentally, my cat Chou chou is
also very curious by nature ... not the only animal who is so. I don't
punish her because she wants to know what something new is, and how it
ticks. I let her smell it and touch it & etc.; or I tell her "it's hot", our
signal for "it hurts". She's a wide awake cat. Everything that goes on
around her is of interest to her. I think because I encourage her coriosity.

Liesel