topic : First step to self knowledge is rejection of the familiar

My essay:
Knowledge is nothing but knowing the facts. Sources of knowledge are umpteen. In this century of growing technology intenet is one of the major resourses. During our ancestral years books, professors and last but not the least experience were considered as the providers of knowledge. As the author claims here that the first step to self knowledge is the rejection of familiar.I believe that to a certain extent it is true.

We have heard of the world renowned scietist and observer Copernicus.He was the one who rejected the then popular beief that earth was the center of the universe. He came up with many evidences that Sun is the center of the universe and the earth revolvees around the sound. But he was put in jail by the church groups for puuting forward a propsal which was against their beleifs. If only he had rejected the idea that earth was in the center of the universe such a great discovery would not have taken place. We also know the fact that the great Christopher Columbus rejected the familiar understanding that the people had those days that the Earth was flat.He set out a great voyage through Atlantic oceans which people considered were filled with monsters that could devour he ships just to prove that Earth was round and there were no such monsters. Since he rejected such ideas that people had in mind and set out to prove it the people became aware of the facts.

In additional to such strange facts there were other weird practises that were held in India during that time. One of them was the Sati sytem. Women who lost their husband were forced to jump to the funeral fire alive. They were considered to be a bad omen. Then one person rejected such strange practises and created awarenessamong people that such barbaric actions were against the law and that no body had the right to take lives of people given by God.

It is true that we can build upon great knowledge only thorugh strong base which were familiar earlier but from the aforementioned facts prove that rejecting familiar ideas which may be false and against the law will eventually lead to the good. We know that every scientist first come up with a theory . It is not considered to be a fact unless it is proved experimentally. Similiarly any awareness or self knowledge may first require a rejection from the familiar known facts or things.