Walt Disney once said, “We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we’re curious and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths.” Indeed, as human beings, it seems to be unanimously agreed upon that there is something deep-rooted and fully natural about our desire to discover the world and our position in it.
Whether it’s a neurological examination of the brain’s reaction to stimuli, advanced travel to Mars, the new and potentially harmful things we try in our adolescent years or merely a child inquiring about the origin of babies, it seems that curiosity does not kill cats, contrary to popular belief, but rather provides human beings a means with which to sufficiently observe and possibly understand our surroundings. This curiosity often leads us to powerful discoveries serving as the primary catalyst to our continued evolution.
As a child growing up in a predominantly Christian home, I can remember being discouraged from doubting and, of course, as a child I had no reason to doubt that assertion. There are countless verses throughout the Bible explaining the insidiousness of doubt and the dangers of lacking faith while, on the other hand, there are plenty of stories of faith prevailing in miraculous ways. The doubts I had I attempted to suppress, for fear of being led astray by some malevolent being attempting to incarcerate my soul. I tried with every inch of me to avoid the questions my mind was desperate to ask. I began to divorce myself from my natural curiosity and found, in its absence, naivety.
At first it was easy to do. I was enamored by the idea of love and the rewards promised to those who are steadfast, but over time I could no longer maintain the mental dam I had constructed to hold back the river of questions trying so hard to flow through me.
The moment I afforded myself the freedom of questioning, there was no going back. Admittedly, I was terrified at first. Everything I had previously believed was now crumbling around me as I sought a wide variety of answers to my questions.
But there is one caveat: it is easy for curiosity to fall victim to fear of uncertainty. Our inquisitive nature opens us up to a whole new world of possibilities. It shows us a world that is emergent rather than established, and we are drawn into the creative process of thought. We begin to ask difficult questions and seek out answers while simultaneously revealing who we are to ourselves and to others. When at its most effective, it’s as if we are being pulled through time and space like a locomotive upon which we are both the cargo and the conductor. For some, this is not a problem because it opens us up to the possibility that we can be “the pilots (conductors) of our own destinies,” but for others this poses a huge problem.
This is where fear comes in. In a perfect world, many — if not all — of us, would be more than happy to pilot our own destinies, but this is reality and derailments often occur. This reality can cause us to become timid, complacent and unwilling to steer for fear of going in the wrong direction. All of us at some point are met with questions we cannot answer, problems we cannot solve, and our curiosity, when accosted by fear, becomes frantic in the pursuit of something to attach itself to for security and direction. Instead of being willingly towed through time and space, where discovery and uncertainty unify to fuel a childlike imagination, many people are coerced into stagnation.
For many, this state of unmoving results in established beliefs that remain unchallenged as they fortify themselves in tradition and routine. Life seems less daunting when the questions are no longer being asked, because the answers have been neatly packaged, labeled and mass distributed for ease of use.
And therein lies the problem.
Real uncertainty had been unknown to me up until the point that I began to question everything, and my first experience with it was unnerving. My curiosity was kick-started into action, again by my fear, as I frantically searched for something to latch on to. This, however, manifested itself in more falsity as anything that appeared mildly alluring caught my attention. If only I had known at the point what the phrase “everything that glitters, ain’t gold” really meant. From various religions to unabashed debauchery I wandered through life aimlessly pursuing vanishing endpoints desperate to find something — anything — to hold on to.
It would be a lie to say that I never looked back. There were many times, particularly in times of need, that I attempted to turn back to what was familiar and safe, but my rationality with its insatiable appetite for truth was not content with settling for the sake of feeling secure. I persisted.
It was not until these past years at this university that I discovered something that I personally found profoundly interesting — namely, that doubt can actually be a beautiful thing, that it goes hand-and-hand with our childlike curiosity and interaction with our universe, that there is nothing to fear from uncertainty and nothing wrong with simply saying, “I do not know.”
In fact, if we are being true to our university’s intent for our time here, then we understand and accept that “truth has nothing to fear from investigation.” If it is something one holds to be true, then one should not be afraid to critically examine it from a variety of angles.
And there is no better time than now. We as Pepperdine students have the unique opportunity of encountering a host of people willing to speak candidly about their beliefs. From professors and coaches, to friends and colleagues, we are able to challenge each other and grow as human beings. With so many different backgrounds and ideas, we can all be a resource to each other, but it begins with us challenging ourselves.
Egyptian novelist Naguib Mahfouz said this, “You can tell whether a man is clever by his answers. You can tell whether a man is wise by his questions.” Stay curious, Waves.
