I try to be careful with absolutes because "always" and "never" are difficult standards to maintain. One of my favorite phrases on this subject to tell students is that "there's an exception to every rule except for this one" because it's usually true. As scientists, we learn that things are only true in certain conditions or within a system, but other rules govern forces outside of that context, and so frequently the rules are more like guidelines.
Imagine then my surprise to hear a prominent national figure on the radio say today "There's always a caveat". Is there a caveat to the notion that there's always a caveat? If not, then this absolute is like a cracked pot and holds very little water, but I digress. If there's an exception to every rule, then why even have rules? As mortals, we like to bend the rules and break them whenever we can, and we are the only organism in all of creation that is allowed to whilly-nilly violate the rules for any length of time without immediate and deadly repercussions. Even when we do, eventually we usually find that we reap what we sow and that "for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction".
Newton was careful to correctly phrase his laws. Most scientific laws come from a long period of careful observation coupled with correction. There are a few that were set as laws with regular exceptions, and we refer to those as rules. These laws and rules were not disseminated helter-skelter like bad memes; they were studied and analyzed and tested rather than passed on as glib cliches from the mouth of incompetent boobs. In this way, we are able to give factual and useful answers rather than a series of asinine banalities that offend the mind and ensnare the senses.
One major reason that we find exceptions to the rules is because there is usually a larger rule that governs it. Things are appropriate when they are appropriate and that's about all there is to it. To every thing there is a season and a time to every purpose under heaven. There is a purpose for every thing. The adversary tries to persuade us to avail ourselves of things at times forbidden by the Ruler of the Universe. It is not that those things in themselves are evil. It is that they are good for us and to us only under certain conditions.
Even moderation must be taken in moderation. In Revelations we read that "I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot. So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth." We need to make decisions and stand for something, but not stand for everything. If we're always moderate, that's an excess as well. (How's that for an oblong paradox?!)
We don't know all the rules or all the points. It's difficult to determine what all the rules are, because we aren't smart enough to ask all the right questions or consider all the possibilities or design things to test them. For this reason, I am apt to quote myself that "Science never proves anything. It removes all other possibilities until only the truth remains." Perhaps for this reason, Spielberg has Professor Henry "Indiana" Jones, Jr. say that science is the search for fact and not truth. It helps us build the picture, but it is not a blueprint. It's a snapshot of what is true under certain conditions, because there's an exception to every rule except for this one. When we know the Absolute Truth we will understand why and how they work.
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