Mark's Musing: More Questions Than Answers

Written By Mark Rockwell,
President of Rockton Software

I recently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, a rich center for science and discovery that rivals any Smithsonian.  Besides being reminded what treasures we have here in America, such as museums, parks, and arts, I felt giddy while I explored with child-like wonder viewing the displays, dioramas, and dinosaurs.

Unlike any museum I’ve seen before, the AMNH’s information displays were written from the perspective of questioning rather than authority.  For instance, one exhibit showed leading theories on how planet Earth was formed.  One theory suggested that a huge meteor struck the sun, at a tangent, and broke off a clump in just the right spot that began to orbit.  What I found so fascinating is that it was one of about four theories presented about how the earth formed, then it gave evidence on what the majority of scientists concur around.  However, it left wide open the chance that I or any other visitor could purport our own theory of what might have happened, but most importantly, no one really knows for sure.

Every exhibit I saw had similar presentations.  They offered what scientists have observed, the scientists’ opinion, what most of us agree on, but also one or two questions on the given topic that we don’t know anything about or needs more exploration.  It left me seeing that science, and in fact almost all branches of knowledge, have far more questions than answers.

I know most of my childhood education consisted of facts from authority that were never to be questioned.  In reality, there’s so much more we don’t know, so what we think we might know . . . just might need to be questioned. Remember, there was a time where we believed the sun revolved around a flat earth. Therefore, what do we not question today that we think we know? When does our assumption of knowledge hinder us? How might asking more and better questions move us forward rather than accepting complacency?

I’m not sure. But, I’m on a quest to find out.

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