Tuesday, May 14, 2013

#1: Do "Facts" Really Exist?

So. My friends and family say I am EXTREMELY analytical. Sometimes I think about things that no one would ever think about. And most of the time, no one would ever care about these things either. But I figure there are some people out there who are as analytical as I am, so I'm going to just throw my thoughts out there for those who care. :)

Fact: something known to exist or to have happened.

Opinion: a belief or judgment that rests on grounds insufficient to produce complete certainty.

These are the definitions of the words "fact" and "opinion," so sayeth dictionary.com. Now, I'm going to veer away from this for a minute, but you'll soon see how it connects to my point. We teach our children that "anything is possible" and that "the sky is the limit." Well, if that is so, and I don't think I'm alone in my thoughts on this part, then obviously we don't know EVERYTHING. Well, do we really know ANYTHING? We have no idea what is really out there, and how could we know? Sometimes things unexplainable just happen. Well, something must have caused this to happen, right? But what? Sometimes we can't explain it, simply because our brains are not that of God. Science only goes so far, and while we learn more about it every day, we couldn't possibly ever learn EVERYTHING about science. If we could, we would have one of those "What now?" moments. What would be left?

My point is still unclear, I'm sure. Well, let me put it this way: One of my favorite quotes in the world is "What you can see is only half of what there is." This is perhaps the most amazing and intelligent quote I've ever heard. And would you believe it came off of Ghost Whisperer? LOL. Maybe I can put it another way. I hope everyone reading this has seen Horton Hears a Who, and if you haven't, you should, because it is an AMAZING movie. Anyway, it poses a great point. In short, Horton finds this world of beings that is so small that he can't see them. This world is microscopic, so no one believes in it, but he knows it exists. Once he proves the existence of this tiny world, everyone believes. Why couldn't this be true about us? Why couldn't we, humans, be microscopic to some other race of beings who are extremely huge to us. Those microscopic creatures could not see Horton, because he was too big, and Horton could not see them because they were too small. Well, maybe our entire universe is in a test tube right now, and maybe we're being tested by some huge being that we can't even see. (This is an idea that my cross country coach and geology teacher Coach Korcha posed in class one day last year.) Well, how could we know if this is true or untrue? Do you think the person who discovered microorganisms didn't have a hard time convincing people of his theories? Back then, if someone told me there was this tiny world of organisms that I can't see, I would have thought that person was crazy. But someone proved it to be true. A FACT. But is that all that is out there? Or is this even out there? Science says it is, but how can we really know for sure? I mean, if anything is possible, which is what we grow up learning, then maybe there's something else out there that we can't see. Maybe it's beings on another planet or in another universe, maybe it's beings that are so huge that we can't see them, or maybe it's another unknown microscopic world, or maybe it's ghosts that walk among the living, or what have you. If you really think about it, how can we possibly know what is out there? We have "proven" that there are things out there that we can't see with our eyes, so who are we to say that something else that we can't see doesn't exist? Yes, I know what you guys are thinking. And you're right. I must say that this is one great reason to believe in God.

But I won't get into that, because I pretty much just explained it anyway. My point about the "facts" and "opinions" is: How can we really know if something is a "fact?" Do "facts" really exist? You may say it's a "fact" that the world is round. But could there be something more to that "fact" that changes it? Can we really see the fullness of the scientific explanations that we call "facts?" Or maybe that doesn't make any sense. Maybe "facts" do exist, but we just don't know any "fact" in its entirity. If anything is possible, and if what you can see is only half of what there is, then how can we possibly know any "facts?" Maybe we don't really know anything, compared to what is out there. Humans, afterall, typically only use 10% of their brains. We call this a FACT, by the way. If this is true, then what could we possibly find out if we used all of our brain power? But we can't. Because we aren't constructed that way. So there's always going to be that 90% of information out there that we will never know, and that's assuming that the human brain has the capacity to know EVERYTHING. So, hypothetically speaking, let's say that the human brain DOES have the capacity to learn EVERYTHING. Well, if we only use 10% of our brain, then there's 90% of information in the world that we will never learn. Look at everything we've learned so far! If there's that much more to learn, then think about how much we truly don't know.

The main thing I want you to take from this: Never be a skeptic, because when you really think about it, anything you think may be false could really be very true, and vice versa. But you will never know.

You will never know. I hate that sentence. I have always been such an analytical, curious person, so naturally, I want to know. I'm so curious as to what is really out there in the world. Knowing that I'll never know bugs me so much, because I just want to know.

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