If you look at a picture with a magnifying glass you will see that a picture is constructed out of many pixels. Each pixel is just a dot of color and may seem meaningless by itself but several pixels put together can create a shape and many more can create a picture. So even a little detail like a pixel is significant to create the whole.
Science is trying to find the smallest particle in the universe. After they found the cell, they found the atom and from the atom they went on to quarks. I'm not a scientist but the point is that we discover details in details. Scientist hope that by understanding the littlest particle we can solve big questions like how the universe came into existence.
Having an understanding of individual components is a good thing, but you cannot only analyze the details and look at the individual pixels. You also have to connect the dots, look at the whole picture and synthesize. But as science probably will never know if it truly found the 'smallest' detail, can we ever know if we truly look at the 'biggest' picture.
The described analogies are good learning and study principles. We should never assume that we know all the details and we should never assume that we fully comprehend the bigger picture. This will not only stimulate us to find out and research more, but it will also keep us humble and cause us to jump to conclusions too quickly.
One day I asked my martial artist master how much is there still left for me to learn? He answered me by saying: "...try to see knowledge as a big curtain. Your knowledge and skills make you able to lift that curtain up and allow you to see partly behind it. I as your master am able to lift the curtain up a little more and see a little more behind it, but the thing is we both don't know how big that curtain is."
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"Be inspired and you shall inspire." ~ JD
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