Physical concepts are free creations of the human mind, and are not, however it may seem, uniquely determined by the external world. In our endeavor to understand reality we are somewhat like a man trying to understand the mechanism of a closed watch. He sees the face and the moving hands, even hears its ticking, but he has no way of opening the case. If he is ingenious he may form some picture of a mechanism which could be responsible for all the things he observes, but he may never be quite sure his picture is the only one which could explain his observations. He will never be able to compare his picture with the real mechanism and he cannot even imagine the possibility or the meaning of such a comparison. - Einstein

I have been reading a lot of Physics recently; learning about relativity, quantum theory, time, matter and everything else that is tied in with them. It's really opened up my eyes to a whole new world of knowledge; I've always had a healthy interest in science, but once you get deep into the workings of modern physics there are theories and ideas that just seem crazy from an undeveloped common sense point of view. This has really consumed my thinking over the past few weeks, I'm developing this whole new level of ideas of an almost mystic quality, which is fantastic.

I've always been anti-scientism, in the sense that I think a lot of existence will never be understood through scientific means, and that I believe the essence of our being is outside the material "sense world". I don't really have any logical reason to think this, and that's kind of the point, it's not logical, it's not scientific. Perhaps it's just my romantic view of god/the universe that causes me to want to feel a connection to something eternal, timeless and infinite. It's probably best explained in that feeling of awe you get when you look at a picture of a supernova, or a galaxy, or just a picture of space; the immensity and depth of it makes my mind run wild with the potential and possibility of the unknown.

This doesn't mean I deny the claims of science, not at all, It's fantastic to find out about everything science has discovered, a feeling which is enhanced by the fantastic theories of modern physics. I just like to keep in mind the fact that all we know is a tiny glimpse of reality, a magnificent achievement for humanity but near-nothing compared to what we don't understand, and that mystery of the unknown is the most magnificent thing of all (even if, like Einstein, you believe everything has an underlying structure).

I am satisfied with the mystery of life's eternity and with a knowledge, a sense, of the marvelous structure of existence — as well as the humble attempt to understand even a tiny portion of the Reason that manifests itself in nature. - Einstein (again)