Overanalyzing, as usual

I've been thinking an awful lot lately about rather profound things, and I'm not sure yet how I feel about them.  I was reading a mystery story by Edgar Allen Poe for my writing seminar last night, and the main character of this story is highly logical and observant.  The idea is brought up that a man, who is a poet, is a fool, simply because he is a poet, and poets are fools.  The highly logical character admits to being a poet himself, and this in a way dispels the idea that all poets are fools.  However, later we find out that the poet is also a mathematician and therefore must be quite logical, seeing as he is both a poet and a mathematician.  I was agreeing with him until I reached a certain point where he basically says that if he were just a mathematician, he would not have that sense of logic, and goes on to explain that mathematics and physical sciences don't deal with realistic things, but rather idealized formulas and models.

At first I was offended, seeing as I've always been a big math and science person.  But lately, I've been having my doubts about all this stuff.  Don't get me wrong, I still love love LOVE science, but now that I'm in chemistry and we're talking about accuracy and precision and all and doing experiments in lab, I just don't feel the same as I once did.

I get excited when I learn something in science, something that I can see in action right before my eyes, and can recreate.  I love how you can hear someone talk about rotational motion and angular momentum, and then see it ACTUALLY WORK when someone throws a bowling ball and it curves ever so nicely when it hits that last few feet of the lane.  I love how when you spin in a spinny chair and suddenly pull your legs in, you spin faster.  I love how you can read about how two substances react together, and then when you mix them, they actually change colors.  I love finding out how our world works, because it is one incredible and complex world.

But that's just the thing.  It is indeed very complex; too complex, in fact, for our human minds to understand EVERYTHING about it.  It is incredible; unbelievably beautiful, and it all fits together so perfectly.  If it is so complex and incredible (incredible coming from the latin word for believe and the prefix in, basically meaning not, in this case at least) then why are we trying so hard to fit it into an equation?  This is what I've been thinking about lately.

In Chemistry, I keep reading about significant figures, precise measurements, and how certain accepted values are not pinpoint exact.  We then use these non-exact values with measurements that certainly aren't exact, because there is always some error, and we get answers that are very close to other data recorded before, but it's never exact.  Basically, I just am wondering what the point of my education in these subject areas is if nothing is definite.  I feel that going out there and experiencing things, having guided experiences with physical concepts and chemical interactions, provides more useful information than reading a textbook, because when you read the textbook, you expect exactness, whereas if you go out there and see it done, you know not to expect it to be exact to our equations.

I'm not really sure what I'm trying to say.  I think basically, I'm challenging ideas that I've had for quite a long time.  I've always found math and science to be very objective, with one right answer, and equations that accurately measure real things.  But I'm realizing now that nothing when applied to real life is ever objective, other than things like 2 + 2.  But then again, 2 + 2 is something that we as humans created.  I think the reason that I am so unsure about myself all the time is that I understand that nothing can ever truly be exactly predicted, other than 2 + 2.  I often don't share my opinions about things because I don't have strong enough opinions about very many things, mainly because there is truly no way to make then black or white.  Before beginning an argument, I involuntarily go through every possible justification against me, and sometimes I simply keep to myself because I cannot clearly argue against EVERY claim against my idea, even before anyone else mutters a word against me.

I find people who are very sure they know things and are very closed minded to other possibilities to be very foolish.  I myself believe certain things to be definite and for sure, but have entertained the thought that maybe they are not, and this is why I can be so sure of these things.  One of these is God.  I cannot find any explanation that fits any better than God.  Another thing that I am sure of is that there is a very complex and absolute truth, and while we can fathom some of it, other bits simply can't be contained in our minds.  And the final thing is, that we as humans will never be able to explain everything on our own, and in order to go out and obtain knowledge in any field, we must first understand that we will never understand everything.

Just a warning: this is just the beginning stages of my thought process on this.  I may change some of the things I've said in a later post, but this is how I see it for now.  I hope I didn't scare you away

I would also like to note that I by no means think of myself as some sort of genius, and I do hope that that's not how I came across in this blog post.  umm, yeah, this is awkward...

Okay, it's been swell!

I love you!