Quote Originally Posted by Thorne View Post
Knowledge is not evil in itself. It is only in our applications of that knowledge that we find evil. But willful ignorance is far more evil. Ignorance is the birthplace of the gods. It allows people to accept supernatural explanations for perfectly natural occurrences which they do not understand. The search for knowledge allows us to throw off the supernatural and understand how the world around us works. If you accept lightning as a punishment from a god, you are always going to find yourself at the mercy of the thunderstorms. But if you study it and learn its nature, you can protect yourself with a piece of metal and some wire! It's a pretty woeful god whose wrath can be deflected by a simple lightning rod!
It is true that knowledge can set us free from some fears, but they can start others - like when will the vulcano in Yellowstone pop? When will worldwar 3 start? When will the virus come that will kill us all? And other sunny ideas...

The other argument was that our technology is incredible and can create many things, but without any wisdom on what to do with it. So though knowledge is not evil in itself it can be turned to evil, and so often is. Maybe we are not ready so have so much knowledge.

Sadly, I have to go along with the idea that we are born brutes. I'm having the pleasure of watching my two granddaughters grow up, having the time to really observe them that I didn't really have with my own children. And I'm finding that children are greedy, selfish and cruel on their own. We have to teach them to share and not to hit others and that they can't have everything they want. We have the capacity to be good, but it is not innate within us. It's a learning process, lifelong.
I do not see why we should be like that by nature. I have worked with children many years, and while many are like you say, they are normally not only like that, but can also be helpfull and kind to others, depending on situations and their own mood at the moment.

But aren't siblings often quite hard on each other?