I think this is the biggest problem I see in people trying to understand deeper fields of study, a concept is just too large or out of our perceived reality to even make sense without years of knowledge. I think people fall into the “woo woo” just because it’s easier to not really know versus becoming a doctorate in a field of study who has slowly built that knowledge on the fundamental principles needed.
But either way, when you start, you just have to accept that something has a cause and effect. We can’t see most fields, just have to accept they are there and interacting the proposed ways because of our tiny little sensors. Sometimes, we just have to say “ok” even if it boggles the mind.
You don’t have to believe in anything to study science. That’s because science doesn’t care what you believe in, it is what it is.
Very wise and excellently articulated, AdamEatsAss.
Science requires that you do not simply start with a belief in something, quite the opposite in fact.
Sure, things that have been demonstrated beyond a reasonable doubt may become the foundation for further research, standing in the shoulders of giants and all, but if you are starting with a conclusion you are doing science wrong.
Magic has two common definitions: a trick which is designed to create the illusion that something supernatural has occurred, or an assertion that the supernatural does indeed exist with magic being the ‘evidence’.
As I am sure someone has said at some point, real magic is fake and fake magic is real.
Magic has nothing to do with science, even though someone once famously said that ‘any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.’
I kinda agree. Sure there’s observable/measurable phenomena out there, but past a certain point it’s like a toddler asking why? You just have to say "because that’s the way it is:
Why did that apple hit me in the head? Because of gravity
Why does gravity make things fall? Objects of larger mass attract objects of smaller mass
Why do they do that? Well the more massive something is the more it warps space around it
Why do massive objects warp space around them? Well there’s some theories that certain sub-atomic particles interact in a way that causes these forces
Why do those particles do that? Well that’s just what they do
(yes, I know these are overly simplified)
Eventually you reach our furthest level of understanding and we just have to say “that’s just what we have observed happening, we don’t have a root cause or explanation yet.” That bottom level is basically magic in our universe until we learn more about it