“Because of the curvature of space” is, indeed, not a good explanation—especially for someone who doesn’t know automatically that a curved line on a spacetime graph equals acceleration—but I did not properly realize this at the time.
The point of this essay is that someone knows the answer, not that I successfully explained it to my uncle. Someone else knowing the answer should not cause you to be any less curious, once you realize that there are no “inherently mysterious” phenomena.
Matthew, if you haven’t been raised in the Christian tradition, it’s simply a non-sequitur, a random unsupported claim. Like saying that the Tooth Fairy exists and only the power of the Tooth Fairy lets you know things. There’s no evidence that the Tooth Fairy exists and moreover someone understands perfectly well how this “knowing” business works (see What Is Evidence?) and that’s not it. If you rename the Tooth Fairy to the Truth Fairy or God it’s the same problem.
“Because of the curvature of space” is, indeed, not a good explanation—especially for someone who doesn’t know automatically that a curved line on a spacetime graph equals acceleration—but I did not properly realize this at the time.
The point of this essay is that someone knows the answer, not that I successfully explained it to my uncle. Someone else knowing the answer should not cause you to be any less curious, once you realize that there are no “inherently mysterious” phenomena.
Matthew, if you haven’t been raised in the Christian tradition, it’s simply a non-sequitur, a random unsupported claim. Like saying that the Tooth Fairy exists and only the power of the Tooth Fairy lets you know things. There’s no evidence that the Tooth Fairy exists and moreover someone understands perfectly well how this “knowing” business works (see What Is Evidence?) and that’s not it. If you rename the Tooth Fairy to the Truth Fairy or God it’s the same problem.