As my dad once said to me, "son, you're very smart, might be smarter than me, but you think you're smarter than you actually are and that's wrong".
It changed my life, think about it. Knowledge means shit if you don't question it, because how the hell are you going to understand it?
I could run rings around people about certain subjects, but if I can't question it, then I probably don't understand it. Because if some jackass like me comes along and says "why?" And the answer you give is "the laws are almost perfect, if you studied it you would know" it's not satisfactory. It's bullshit. To most that just means, "I don't fucking know, go away".
Yeah sure, you may be smarter than me because you studied at a higher level than I did, but ya know what, that means jack shit. Because I've met enough people that could run rings around me on a subject I studied at university and they know about it way more than me.
The people I think are intelligent are the ones who aren't afraid to challenge their thinking, those who aren't afraid to explore ideas that they don't understand.
You're telling me newtons laws are perfect, but how do you know? If we do find something that completely disproves it, would you still believe it's true? Most likely not, you're a scientist damn it, the possibility of discovering something incredible should excite you and the laws of science shouldn't be holding you back from exploring the idea, because where's the fun in that?! The reason I loved the shit out of science was because I was allowed to constantly test and discover new things, why should that stop when the laws of science are almost perfect? What if they aren't? This isn't an attack on you, it's a thinking exercise, this whole damn thread is a thinking exercise.
Knowledge is power sure and you strike me as someone that's definitely smart, but that doesn't mean you have to narrow your mindset into one set of beliefs, because if the time comes where that belief is truly challenged by something unexpected; then you are fucked. Truly fucked, because you be stuck in that mindset. Which is why I haven't thrown away the notion of God, I don't believe in it at all, but to dismiss it entirely as something that's absolutely not possible is silly, because we don't know shit about our universe, we are clever as fuck, but we still don't know shit. Because compared to the size of the universe, we are so laughably small, that to assume we got it all figured out is ignorant and arrogant.
If tomorrow we discovered a whale the size of the sun that are planets as a food source, your mind would be fucked, because you wouldn't be able to comprehend the idea of it, because "it goes against the laws of science". When science has always been about discovering, explaining, experimenting and solving shit.
Anyway, if you felt this was a personal attack on you, it wasn't. It's just a means of trying to get you to explore the idea, let go of the academic side and just fucking explore man. What have you got to lose?! A whale the size of a sun eating planets?? THATS COOL AS SHIT MAN!
Sorry, I do apologise, I'm very drunk right now and felt I had to get this off my chest for no reason at all. I wish you a good morning and a good day! :D