© 2016 Santiago Rodríguez
© 2016 Urantia Association of Spain
Gravitational waves, predicted by Albert Einstein’s theory of general relativity (1915), seem to have been finally confirmed experimentally in September 2015 by the LIGO experiment and released to the public in February 2016, creating a huge expectation.
This closes the series of predictions of Einstein’s theory that have been corroborated over the years: anomalies in the orbits of certain planets, the curvature of light, the expansion and contraction of time and space, and finally the existence of gravitational waves.
In this way, an important endorsement is given to his theory that, although it is not the only theory that uses these concepts, it is the simplest that has obtained predictions adjusted to the experimental results.
This translates not only into the fact that Albert Einstein’s vision of the cosmos is accepted as probably a very accurate description of reality, but also leads us to establish that the rest of the conclusions related to it are taken for granted, and theories about the appearance of the universe such as the Big Bang emerge strengthened from these studies. This conception of the appearance of the cosmos at a given moment (Big Bang) is one of the biggest divergences with the contents of The Urantia Book.
Let’s do a quick review of some of the ideas that are being considered and contrast them with ideas expressed in the book itself. We will be surprised that there are quite a few conceptual coincidences in the most fundamental, although there are also divergences that are difficult to reconcile with current cosmological views.
In fact, gravitational waves, the deformation of space-time that is transmitted as a wave, have a perfect place in The Urantia Book’s exposition of physical reality.
Let us remember that The Urantia Book, although it may not seem so at first glance, gives us a much more complex vision than that presented by current science. In fact, to try to find parallels, we have to restrict the study of the concepts “space” and “gravity”:
Space: we refer only to “penetrated space”, we do without both the non-penetrated space and the quiescent zones of space between the penetrated and the non-penetrated. UB 11:6.1
Gravity: we limit ourselves to material gravity and even more, only to circular or linear gravity, and we do without absolute gravity. UB 11:8.7; UB 12:3.8
Newton’s mechanics (1686) assumed gravity as a force with infinite range and instantaneous transmission. The “Einsteinian” revolution was to establish that although the range of gravity may be infinite, it is not instantaneous transmission, but rather its transmission speed is that of the speed of light. Another of the novel ideas of the theory of relativity is that time and space should not be studied as separate entities, but that the 4 dimensions (three spatial and one temporal) in which we have all our physical activity are interchangeable and mathematically they hold equivalence relations.
We can precisely find coincidences in the contents of The Urantia Book for these concepts:
The fact that the Creator Sons need an enormous amount of time to accommodate the newly appeared mass in their spatial domains without there being disturbances in the rest of the domains of other UB 32:1.1 Creator Sons; UB 32:1.5 could be due to the fact that the effects of linear gravity are not instantaneous and are forced to accommodate them slowly to avoid cataclysms.
The book itself tells us that indeed we have to speak not of space and time as separate entities, but as unequivocally interrelated UB 65:8.1
We will say that an important convergence of this theory with what is expressed in the book is the very concept that space-time is not merely a place where things happen, but that it is an object with its own characteristics. In fact, the confirmation of gravitational waves by science shows us that the space-time framework is a deformable object, and also that we are capable of measuring this deformation.
The fact that space-time is an “object” makes it present a geometry (a shape) that is also the object of study by science and it seems that, although at certain scales it could be considered flat, (that is, it would be applicable for its study Euclidean geometry) on a large scale does not seem to behave as such and other forms, other geometries have to be considered.
The Urantia Book clearly indicates that the observable space (penetrated space) is contained, is enveloped by another type of space, and this space, actually both types, the penetrated and the non-penetrated, present contractions and dilations ("respiratory movements »).
It also shows us a non-flat geometry, a form for the space in which we develop as finite beings. Let us remember the simile of both the hourglass and the Maltese cross in revolution. UB 11:6.1.
Thus, the existence of gravitational waves reinforces the idea that space itself is subject to fluctuations, that space and time do not present the same values in any part of the cosmos, but that these depend on the characteristics of the place, such as the mass/energy present in the environment in which we study that space and that time.
Einstein’s postulate “the invariance of the speed of light” makes the notions of “duration” and “simultaneity” observer-dependent, that is, relative.
The duration of time is different for an individual who moves at a certain speed with respect to one who is considered “still”, so that for the one who moves, less time always elapses than for the one who remains still.
Two events can be simultaneous (occur at the same time) for one observer and for another observer the same pair of events may not be. Thus, a “universal present” is meaningless. Each observer can define their own present, and this will not coincide with the one defined by the others. In this way, the event S1 for me can be prior to S2 and for another observer it can be precisely the reverse, unless there is a causal relationship between the two events, in which case it can be shown that this time reversal respects the principle of causality, so that the cause always precedes the consequence.
The speed of light is a limit that means that any material object with a mass greater than zero cannot be accelerated to the speed of light, since an infinite amount of energy would be necessary for this and the mass of that body would grow to infinity. .
Einstein stopped considering gravity as a force acting at a distance between two bodies with mass, and thus was able to avoid the problems arising from the fact that simultaneity was relative. He introduced the concept of curved space and concluded that gravity was nothing but a physical manifestation of that curvature of space-time.
Curiously, in The Urantia Book there appear concepts that abound in these ideas contemplated by the theory of relativity.
The fact that in the universe there must be a record and constancy of time in different places, as the Cronoldeks UB 29:4.37 seem to record, somehow seems to evidence what Einstein predicted about the relativity of time and space . Even causal relationships are present in the Master Universe. Even in Paradise, where time is different from how we understand it, a causal relationship UB 11:2.11 defined for physical systems UB 16:6.6 continues to be maintained
But there are other aspects that differ quite a bit from what is accepted by the physical theories of the moment, among which we could highlight the enormous scientific interest of unifying gravity with the rest of the fundamental forces, when The Urantia Book is suggesting that gravity could not be one of the fundamental forces and that furthermore the fundamental forces do not respond to gravity:
. . .even the primal physical forces are not responsive to linear gravity, (UB 12:6.5)
. . .Gravity is the sole control of energy-matter. Neither space nor pattern are gravity responsive, (UB 0:6.11)
Space is nonresponsive to gravity, but it acts as an equilibrant on gravity. Without the space cushion, explosive action would jerk surrounding space bodies. Pervaded space also exerts an antigravity influence upon physical or linear gravity; space can actually neutralize such gravity action even though it cannot delay it. (UB 11:8.3)
Once again brushstrokes of convergences and divergences are appearing between the study of what is revealed and what is contemplated by our science in continuous advance and change. Like humanity and the human being himself, they continue to be an “evolutionary process.”
Surely the new possibilities that open up with the study of gravitational waves, a different tool to electromagnetic radiation (light) to contemplate and study the cosmos, will lead science to find explanations about physical reality that will bring them closer in some way. way to the general ideas revealed in The Urantia Book. The passage of time will indicate it to us. We will be listening.
¶ References
- Light and Life Magazine (all old issues): https://aue.urantia-association.org/numeros-antiguos-del-lyv/