A thorough understanding of the universe would change the world. Having knowledge of the universe’s functions and structure is the first step to solving humanity’s most pressing problems. Look at all the solutions already born out of academia: disease control, food preservation, transportation technology, and the light bulb. But as the world is still riddled with problems, we must continue with the pursuit of understanding, more vehemently than ever. Problems like genocide and climate change cannot afford to wait. Imagine the place the world would be if the entire population better valued knowledge, logic, and critical thinking. That could directly eliminate some of the worst problems facing the world like racism, but even those not immediately solved, like global warming, could be addressed more easily if we all cared enough to work together to understand the problem and develop a solution. A perfect world isn’t possible, but every version of a utopia I imagine has an educated population as a foundation. Learning and spreading knowledge is the path to a better world: a world with more advanced green energy infrastructure, where fewer people die from disease, there is better protection from catastrophe, and more capable technology allowing humans easier lives. An understanding of the nature of the universe is so precious because with it we can best navigate our world, living the most efficient, fulfilling, and enjoyable lives possible, and the tools we must use to reach that understanding are science, logic, and critical thinking. Science is the greatest method through which we attempt to understand the nature of the universe. What a work of art the study of the natural world is. Meticulous experimentation and observation of the behavior and structure of the universe allow us to discover truths and predict outcomes. The systematic testing of theories is a delicate dance with the laws of the universe, with scientists pushing back on their own biases and ideas in attempts to disprove themselves, until they give in when they are sure a hypothesis can be accepted. Science is not meant to serve any one person but instead to contribute to the collective knowledge of humanity. It makes life easier for us. Imagine if we still had to use paper maps to navigate, search a library of books for specific information, or live in a pre-medicine era and die from common infections. Science saves lives and protects the world. For any idea to be accepted as science, it must hold true, and these truths have proven to save us time, harm, effort, money, and space. That is why it is so important that we listen to science and value scientific expert opinions. They have knowledge that can help us with the problems we face like illness, climate change, and natural disaster. Science is not the only component of our understanding of the universe. Logic is also indispensable: without it we cannot properly interpret facts or communicate them. We must use adequate judgement and reason to understand and form logical claims that we can live our lives by and correctly convey to others. Logic is so critical to an understanding of the universe because we use it to judge the information we encounter, and if we aren’t fairly judging facts, we cannot develop a comprehensive understanding of those facts. For example, if a person having non-specific symptoms (aches or fatigue) listens to advice to eat healthier and take supplements, those supplements may serve no real therapeutic purpose, but the person's relief may still be attributed to the supplement if they were told that it had relieving effects. The assumption that the supplements worked neglects the fact that they took other measures of intervention (eating healthy) that could have improved their situation, the placebo effect, and regression to the mean (we get better because our bodies heal over time on their own). The fact is the person felt better, but being able to discern why they felt better is where proper judgement is necessary. If we want to help other people with their illnesses we need to know exactly what helps. Knowledge is just our collection of known truths, but logic is the methodology of using those truths along with reason to form valid claims that can be shared and applied for the betterment of society. Logic is about using past experience, knowledge, probability, reason, and fair judgement to wholly understand and appropriately communicate facts. In order to convey world truths our conclusions must logically follow our premises. I’ve heard, in defense of pre-scientific practices, that if ancient ideas and traditions persist into modern times, they must be valid or truthful, for if they are not valid why would they continue to be upheld for centuries? But that’s actually a great question if it would’ve been framed as a question instead of the reasoning of this claim. There are a plethora of reasons why ideas repeatedly turned down by the scientific consensus continue to plague society: biases, logical fallacies, psychological effects, and other appeals. This is the case for concepts like alternative medicine and astrology, and bad health practices can kill. The reality is being illogical is incredibly dangerous. As a society we must build our argumentative and reasoning skills, philosophical literacy, and logicality, so we can live our lives with a better sense of what to do. Critical thinking is the cherry on top of the logic and science sundae, a bow that neatly ties together scientific literacy and logicality with the ability to thoroughly evaluate the validity of claims. Critical thought includes practicing metacognition (thinking about the way you think), awareness and avoidance of cognitive biases and logical fallacies, neuropsychological humility (being humble to the ways your own mind can trick you), and keeping conscious of all the other socio-psychological phenomena, appeals, heuristics, problems, errors, and pseudosciences that can cloud your judgement. Critical thought is about using reason, knowledge, evidence, logic, scientific literacy, and statistical probability to decide which ideas to accept or disregard. It is essential that we know how to properly judge the claims we encounter because giving credence to the wrong ones can hurt or even kill us, either directly through, for example, bad health advice or indirectly through negligence of anthropogenic climate change. Life is easier and more fulfilling when you think critically and seek the truth. You know who to listen to and what to do, and besides, knowledge is invigorating all by itself. There is no feeling like the one I get when I learn, there is nothing else like being captivated by knowledge, finding romance in learning, and being so deeply curious about what is out in the universe that I don’t know about. I feel inconceivably lucky to get to experience the wonder, grace, and elaborate beauty of the universe. My love for its complexity is the most unconditional and irrevocable love I’ve ever known, and I only fall more in love everyday. I’m so fascinated by everything which drives me to learn, and all that knowledge just fascinates me more, further motivating me to understand. Everything I have learned has been beyond interesting, and all I can do now is continue with my pursuit of knowledge to fulfill my desire to understand the universe. Though, I do feel very blessed by my curiosity because it is what makes every day fun. Life is very whimsical and joyful when you can be easily astonished because you discern the magnificence of the universe. Knowledge colors my world, and science is real magic. Understanding the universe is important to the world because of its capacity to change it for the better, and understanding is important to me because it is the love of my life and what gets me up every day. I will be advocating science, logic, and critical thinking until the day I die, not just because I love them, but also because I know they are the means to making the world a better place.