Which side do you stand on?

Question

i've found in astronomy/physics or whatever you want to call it, that there are two sides.... those who believe everything can be explained (even if it isn't yet understood) and those who think the universe is far too bizarre to really ever fully understand..

which side do you stand on?

Answer 1

I think that if our species survives long enough -- and that's a big "if" -- we will eventually know everything there is to know about our universe and the physics that governs it.

Answer 2

A

Answer 3

Some aspects of the universe may forever remain theoretical.

Answer 4

I don't believe *everything* can be explained.  Those questions about the extremes of the universe are examples, like how it began, ie. what caused it.

But I do believe that most other things can be understood.  In fact, I'm somewhat of a renegade in my belief that they already have.  I think they've hit the wall.  Just consider this: there may be an end to how complex the universe is and how much there is to understand.  I'm not talking about things like whether there is life elsewhere.  I'm talking about *understanding* how the universe works.  I believe it has paralleled the making of maps.  At one time, little was known, but now we have mapped the entire globe and there is little hope of discovering some new land.  Geographical discovery on earth is virtually finished.  I believe, in theoretical physics, they are near that point.  Maybe a couple of tiny, inconsequential islands left.

Whenever anyone expresses such heretical doubts, there are always those who jump up and point out how wrong people were in the past.  I make only one argument: How many unanswered fundamental questions were there in their day?  How many are there today?  How many things do we still not understand?  Give me some phenomenological questions which haven't been answered.  The only new horizons that I see are at extremes of reality, which offer little new understanding of the universe.

Here come the thumbs!!

Note: I do NOT include technological advances in this argument.  They are a different thing.

Answer 5

Everything can be explained but we are not trying hard to find an explanation.  We are trying hard to kill people in wars and wasting tax dollars.  Instead, those tax dollars can be used for these space exploration and science projects for a professional organization and then we may be able to start explaining things. Nothing is impossible, remember that (except l*****g your elbow).

Answer 6

In our universe, the laws of physics do not change, therefore it is possible to understand the universe in as far as our research takes us.   There is a word for this property of the universe but I don't remember it.  Since laws remain the same over time, we can study new phenomenon once some have already been established, and don't have to worry about them no longer being correct at some later point.

Answer 7

I believe everything can be explained.  There's no real evidence that everything can be explained.  So this believe is faith, or at least a delusion.  However, if one wants to know more, which is a finite subset of everything - a more modest goal, then the delusion that anything can be explained is very handy.  If you don't think you can get the answer, you might not try.  And you fail before you start.

Answer 8

the 1st one i guess

Answer 9

I am on the side that everything can be explained (one day), even if it takes humans another million years.