My relationship to Astronomy, Pt. 3: Why do I love it?

Now, to conclude my astronomical story, we have part 3! Part 3 will be WHY I love astronomy as much as I do. I hope you enjoy:

Why do I love astronomy so much? While most people on the planet don't even bother looking up, I do. Why? It's quite hard for me to put it into words. But there's something about astronomy. I don't really know what it is. Join me as I attempt to put this into words:

In science, we don't know a lot of the answers. Scientists, unlike most other professions, they LIVE on not knowing. It's what keeps them going. If we knew all of the answers, then there would be no need for science, no need for a scientist to keep doing his/her work. This is very true in Astronomy as well. While we do know quite a bit about the universe we live in, there is still SO MUCH that we don't know even today. As humans, we have a natural instinct to try and learn about the world around us. Astronomy just takes that to the next level. Astronomers want to know about the universe around us. We thrive on learning about the things that happen all around us in the sky. When we see something we don't know, we get excited. Our minds say "Oh, what is this? Let's learn about this!" And we do. Science is built around repeatable evidence. As Carl Sagan said: Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. And that's what I love about science and astronomy. It doesn't require any leaps of faith or for you to "believe" in something. Everything in science is at least mathematically provable. For things like String Theory and Loop Quantum Gravity, it's not possible to observationally prove them. But, that's not the point of this entry. It's why I love astronomy. And it's basically because with astronomy and astrophysics, we don't know everything (the mystery is the most exciting part!), and with our knowledge, there is some uncertainty, but it's all related to experimental uncertainty, not leaps of faith. (I'm sorry to any religious person who reads this) That's why I can't handle religion. It's unprovable and never can be proven, mathematically or observationally. In science, when that's the case, we have a problem. Our brains break down when that happens, and we reject it and look for more rational explanations. And guess what, we find them!


So, that's why I love science and astronomy, and somehow a bit of why I don't like religion popped in there. I hope it was understandable. This was the hardest one to write because it's hard to put into words why I love it so much. I'm sorry if it confused anyone.

P.S. That was A LOT of writing. It was fun to write, but it was a lot. I probably won't post tomorrow unless something happens that I want to talk about or something. I posted 4 small entries and one large entry Saturday, a small one yesterday, and three large entries today. I feel like I deserve a day off. Whether or not I'll give myself one, we'll see.