Thank you and what you said is well stated and correct.

This kind of passion for knowledge and seeking the facts was seen in my Grandmother who was deeply involved in Genealogy and she spent most of her life physically searching records. Two years ago I suddenly got an interest to pick up the gauntlet and get much of my genealogy on the computer. I accomplished in 2 weeks on the internet what took my grandmother 40 years to accomplish, verifying all of her information. But perhaps there needs to be some pain and anguish involved to fully appreciate the knowledge and the learning process. I will save that thought for a future time.

Like God, I'm on an agenda and schedule, and time is running out.

CanMan,

I can appreciate much of what you offer.

To simplify my position- in fields where one is not themself an expert, and if one seeks the shortcut of gaining fast-track knowledge without taking the long road of doing the extensive work themselves, whether you're discussing creating the wheel, making a pie crust or creating the atom bomb- our only option is to weigh studies and opinions of others, who are hopefully wiser than we are- and make a choice about which expert's version to believe.

Sometimes this is a positive experience that truly makes us wiser. Sometimes we make a wrong turn, following others who themselves made wrong turns, and we end up in a dark narrow alley believing certain specifics that couldn't be further from the truth.

The quest for knowledge almost certainly results in knowledge- but not always the accurate knowledge. Since you touched on religion- for example, with your illustration of Cain & Able... there are those who believe teaching Creationism is the only truth there is- and others who believe it to be a lie. Likewise there are those who teach Evolution as the only truth there is truth- who teach Creationism is the lie. Then there are many middle-ground threories inbetween... All cannot be true, can they?

Choice. Considering the various experts. Weighing arguments of said experts. And again- choice. Many (most?) times it's a big gamble. We go to our graves never knowing for sure whether we chose the right expert to believe- never knowing if the knowledge we accepted as truth was the right choice or not... This doesn't mean we stop asking the questions. It just means we stay careful and to a degree, keep our minds open.

CanMan that is very interesting. And perhaps you are right about the pain and anguish involved in the learning process itself. I for instance learned to watercolor paint by myself, it was fun and frustrating and totally enjoyable all at the same time. I tend [personally] to hate the painful and or frustrating parts associated with learning anything new, but as a mature and hopefully knowledgeable adult I realize that it's all a part of the process of learning anything new and so I choose to hang-in-there until I get it right, or at least to the stage where I feel I have accomplished my goal. Some of us "artsy" type folks tend to be very displeased with our own short-comings or imperfections so learning for us is a two-edged sword, and just a big ole' pain in the patootie sometimes! I try and remind myself of that fact and choose to be very selective in what I want to learn that is new and unfamiliar to me:) this prevents me going wacko and being a real pain to live with:o I get all excited about new things I have learned and drive those around me crazy with all my "new learned stuff" I totally love to share:o and others really could care less sometimes! But anyway I like that you pointed out that sometimes the learning process is painful and can make one feel anguish.