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AN UNCERTAIN INTRODUCTION
If someone wants to tell you that certain things are true. Certain things are facts. Certain things are indisputable. If someone wants to speak with authority, at times absolute authority, then it is well worth considering their sources and their motivations.
There is something odd about a world with a history of changing facts being so full of certainty, or at least the assumption of certainty.
I am mostly uncertain about most things.
I am certainly uncertain about many things people tell me are true.
Black Holes, External Realities, Beginnings of Time, Transfinite Numbers... lots of uncertainties.
Why are all the impact craters on the moon circular? Surely some wandering rocks should have gouged out a few trenches? There are examples of eliptical craters but their rarity does deserve a reasoned answer to the question.
We need to carefully consider the language we use to consider our uncertainties, and distinguish assumption from certainty.
What's wrong with paradox?
PHILOSOPHY IS ABOUT ASKING QUESTIONS.
The question concerning craters on the moon is not a trivial one. An intuitive answer may be a classic example of Contagion by Assumption. Knowledge may act like a disease, creating symptoms of certainty where certainty has no right to be. People believe they know why there are craters on the moon, rocks crashing onto the surface create craters, no more needs to be said.
You have never seen a rock hitting the moon, have you? You have been told they are impact craters but knowledge of their presence and appearance are based solely on learned information. What is said to happen involves objects traveling at very high velocity being slowed very quickly on impact. High compression converts kinetic energy into heat and the object into a gaseous state. The consequence is explosive vapourisation throwing surface materials out in a relatively uniform circular pattern.
The angle of approach of the object has little bearing on the subsequent expansion of highly compressed hot gas, resulting in the predominance of circular craters.
The belief that asteroids cause craters is partial knowledge, which here is refered to as Contagion. See the Contagion page for more details.
