Everything in our natural world is a puzzle. From the gravity binding our feet to earth to the outer reaches of the universe, observations are the pieces of a huge jigsaw puzzle. As we start to fit more of the pieces together we can start to see the big picture, and better understand the world around us.
Unless we looked at the photo on the box, we don’t really know what the final outcome will be. We observe individual pieces and try to determine where they best fit. In the beginning we might get quite a few pieces wrong. That’s okay. We’re still learning. As we identify more and more pieces we begin to see what the total picture will show us. While we still might not know all of the details of the picture, the puzzle is complete enough for us not to mistake the overall concept.
Unfortunately, too many people want to ignore all of the work completed so far in our biggest puzzle, science. Many puzzles are nearly complete, but some people still believe the picture will turn out different even though only a few pieces remain. It has webbed feet, feathers, a long bill, and is floating on a pond– however some people still don’t see the duck and see some guy named Adam instead.
And fortunately, there will always be more puzzles for us to discover and solve.
