Thanks for all the replies. However there are a couple of points I'm still
unsure on.
1. If an observer fell into a black hole, would it be possible for him to
miss the singularity and pass out the other side? Or perhaps go into orbit
around it, within the event horizon? Ignoring differential gravitational
forces of course.....
2. A nonrotating uncharged BH is a pretty idealised object. What are the
effects of angular momentum and charge on its characteristics? Can anyone
recommend a good reference for this, the books and articles I've looked at
seem to dismiss it as a problem seemingly too difficult to compute to bother
with!
3. Dave Bowman's reply is very in-depth (thanks!). But how does it affect
the idea that if 2 BHs were to merge, the event horizon afterwards would
have an area equal to the sum of the two previous event horizons' areas?
And the comments I made regarding the non-inertial frames discussion were
supposed to suggest that perhaps the debate is more to do with individuals'
perceptions of events and their relationships than the interactions
themselves. Does calling a force ficticious make any difference to its
effects? I agree that the subject is important and deserves further
dicussion, but some of the lines being pursued seem rather circular.