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Observations on Celestial Bodies, and Gallo’s Razor


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Observations on Celestial Bodies, and Gallo’s Razor

By Gallo

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As a young boy, I remember gazing up at the heavens at night and attempting to count the stars. But I quickly made the observation that the Sun, Moon, and stars all move across the sky at exactly the same speed. The question as to why puzzled me into my adult years, much to the point that in my 76th year I began studying the stars.

 

 

The fact that our world is flat is well known and common knowledge. So when regarding the speeds of the celestial bodies, only two possible explanations emerge. One, that something in ages long past had set forth all the known objects in the Void upon their current trajectory in perpetual orbit around our world. Or two, that the heavenly bodies are in fact stationary, and that it is our world that rotates like a coin flipping in the air, thus giving the appearance that all else revolves around us at the same speed.

 

 

In the first scenario, one might hypothesize that an Aengudaemon set in motion the stars, Sun, and Moon, perhaps for its own amusement. I am sure that the Church of the Canon would purport that GOD designed the universe in such a way, but for what reason remains unclear.

 

 

In the second scenario, our coin-like world would have to be fixed at a point in the Void but constantly be flipping over and over, thus generating our day-night cycle. The Sun and Moon would sit on opposite ends of our world, with us somewhere in the center (imagine a straight line passing through the three of us, with the stars all scattered around us).

 

 

It is the second explanation that I find more probable. Allow me to demonstrate why the first explanation is improbable. But first, allow me to put forth and elaborate upon an important idea.

 

 

In natural science, there are always a multitude of possible explanations for any phenomenon. Most of them are bad. They are bad because they are too outlandish and do not stand up to logical reasoning or cannot be observed. Allow us to use a simple standard to ‘chip’ away at these bad ideas like a razor chips away at wood.

 

 

I present Gallo’s Razor: any explanation for a natural phenomenon that is illogical, outlandish, or unobservable can simply be ignored.

 

 

If we apply this Razor to our two explanations for celestial bodies’ harmonious speed, the result is quite satisfactory. We can apply our Razor to the notion that some deity caused the Sun, Moon, and stars to revolve around the world at exactly the same speed. But what deity caused this? Why? When? Why the same speed? Since these questions cannot be answered or measured scientifically, the only logical course of action is to disregard the whole concept.

 

 

Thus our only remaining explanation is that all celestial bodies are stationary and that our world flips round and round in the Void, giving the appearance to its residents that all else revolves around us. We are so accustomed to living on our flipping disk that we do not notice its rotations!

 

 

This is my Coin Theory.

 

 

((ooc: not declaring this to be lore. this is just the conclusion my char came to))

Edited by d0ntc4r3
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[!] A letter is issued to Gallo, hopefully finding his permanent residence.

 

“Mr. Gallo,

 

I pray this missive reaches you well. I am Josephine Augusta, Director of Civil Affairs for the Holy Orenian Empire. I encountered your recent paper while reading certain cultural and scientific papers as part of a larger review of potentially significant works.

 

I compliment you on your interest in philosophical inquiry, but offer some critiques as to your conclusions.

 

Principally, I do not consider the motion of the world to be any more unlikely than the motion of the heavens. Indeed, it seems more likely that the heavens move, for if the earth beneath us moved, would we not feel it? Regardless, the movement of the world does not seem to be, of itself, any more or less believable than the movement of the Skies. Lacking the ability to observe the motion of the earth while we are standing on it, it seems simplest to assume the heavens move instead.

 

Additionally, I feel some religious obligation to disagree that God setting the heavens to motion is outlandish. I judge it no more outlandish that a deity should accomplish this than if it were to happen automatically; all things must have a cause. Further, it is well-known that the Aengudaemons often quarrel and work towards different agendas, yet the world obeys a single set of physical laws. Thus the simplest explanation is that there was a single, first cause—a prime mover who established a universal order, creating both the heavens and the earth. Though I am a Canonist, I make this argument on a purely philosophical basis, with no respect to whatever moral laws such a God might set forth.

 

In summary, and despite my objections to your conclusion, I find Gallo’s Razor to be a useful rule in analyzing the viability of scientific claims. I look forward to your future works.

 

Cordially,

Josephine Augusta, Duchess of Sunholdt”

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