"It seems as if in the process of growing up we lose the ability to wonder about the world."

In my opinion, what Knox meant by this quote is that people don’t think about why things happen, where things come from, how things happen and who started it. We learn to take things as they come and get used to it because we can adapt easily to our surroundings, so perhaps we can adapt to theories and thoughts as well? Younger children will be able to take in things more easily because they have not experienced anything before, and their brains act like a sponge, so they will believe in whatever their senses take in and think that it is commonly accepted – such as superman. This is because they haven’t been given the wisdom and knowledge to analyze this piece of information which only happens in comic books and cartoons. However, as we grow up to become adults, we try to answer questions people have been wondering for ages. Many of us will accept scientific theories such as Darwin’s while those who are religious will believe in Thomas Aquinas’ Cosmological argument.

Some people may disagree with Knox’s quote because they feel that they still do experience surprise, confusion, and awe when they are faced and presented to things they have never experienced before – such as pregnancy. There is no use thinking too much about our origins and how all these magical things happen around us because science answers all this. We’d only come back to these reasons anyway, so what’s the point?

In contrary, I think that it is true – people will accept things gradually that happen to and around them over time. An example in the book would be from the mysterious letters Sophie receives (pg 17). Baby Thomas does not feel that there is anything wrong in the course of nature when his father flies and floats while his mother ‘screams with fright’. Why is this? The baby has not learnt nor taught that humans can not fly as we do not have wings, and that he does not have the knowledge, but his mother has. Everything that happens around them is new to children, but to adults. An example from my own is experience is an object which is present in most homes of families around the world; a television. This electronic appliance might be forgotten and ignored by my parents, but to me, it presented me with great wonder and infinite numbers of theories on why people appear on the screen and where they came from. Parts of me told myself that there were people living inside that black box, but my parents told me disappointing reasons otherwise.

Adults have learnt to take in information and accept them, while children are constantly learning. Only those who continue to wonder and think will discover and invent things, and these are the qualities that make them stand out.