I'm generally an optimist, and its been my pleasure to be able to write mostly about things that matter. But sometime things don't go as smoother as we thing they will. It has been getting progressively uglier lately.
To learn to think is to learn to question. Those who don't question never truly think for themselves. These are simple rules that have governed the innovation of science and human thought since the beginning of time. Advancements are made when thinkers question theories and introduce new ones. Unfortunately, it is often the great and respected thinkers who end up slowing the progress of human thought.
Brilliant minds can intimidate up-and-coming thinkers who are not confident of their abilities. They often believe they are inferior to the minds of giants, leading many to accept current paradigms instead of questioning them. Science leaps a major hurdle every time people think for themselves and realize that even respected thinkers are human too, and their thoughts are not law.
I, like many thinkers of the past, once believed in my mental inferiority. I was certain that my parents, my teachers - adults in general - were always right. They were like a textbook to me; I didn't question what was written on those pages. I respected them, and accepted whatever they told me. But that attitude soon changed. My mind's independence was first stimulated in the classroom.
Questions are said to be the path to knowledge and truth, and I plan to continue questioning. How many things do we know for sure today that we will question in the future? At this moment, I am certain man can never reach the speed of light. I know that our sun will burn for another five billion years, and I know nothing can escape the gravity of a black hole. This knowledge, however, may change in the next 20 years - maybe even in the next two. The one thing we can control now is our openness to discovery.
Questions are the tools of open minds, and open minds are the key to intellectual advancement.
