{"id":52237,"date":"2016-02-21T08:58:20","date_gmt":"2016-02-21T15:58:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/?p=52237"},"modified":"2016-02-21T08:58:20","modified_gmt":"2016-02-21T15:58:20","slug":"does-observation-of-gravitational-waves-makes-einsteins-space-time-a-patta-aththa","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/2016\/02\/21\/does-observation-of-gravitational-waves-makes-einsteins-space-time-a-patta-aththa\/","title":{"rendered":"Does observation of gravitational waves makes Einstein\u2019s space-time a patta aththa?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Janaka Wansapura<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/h2>\n

Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einsteina century ago. A group of physicists (LIGO) based in the USA built a fine instrument to detect them and they recently found what they had believed to exist. A Canadian technical college teacher, Bodhi Dhanapala, enrolling the dead scientist\u2019s involuntary aid, implies (Island 13\/2\/16) that this discovery falsifies Nalin de Silva\u2019s claim that the theory of gravitation is a blatant lie (patta pal boru). Clearly there is a mismatch in what we and Bodhi Dhanapala understand as patta pal boru.<\/p>\n

Nalin de Silva\u2019s, thesis work was on relativistic gravitational effects in Astrophysics for which he earned his PhD from the University of Sussex in 1970. Years later, scientists were able to confirm Dr. Nalin de Silva\u2019s predictions on dragging of inertial frames through observations and his results had been published in the prestigious Nature magazine. Therefore it should be clear that when Nalin de Silva says that the theory of gravitation is a blatant lie, he means it in a philosophical context. It seems that Dhanapala failed to grasp the idea.<\/p>\n

Theravadin Bhuddhists believe in the idea of there being no self or that I\u201d is a lie (boru, musa, maya, unreal, etc.). If I\u201d is a lie then all experiences of I\u201d must be lies as well. If this I\u201d then goes on to create abstract stories about its experiences (which happened to be lies) then those stories ought to be called blatant lies (patta pal boru). In this sense if some story is a patta pal boruwa then it cannot claim to be about an absolute reality (patta aththa). Both Newton and Einstein created abstract stories about things falling to the ground. They are both patta pal boru in the above sense.<\/p>\n

If I\u201d is a lie and that I\u2019s experiences are lies, it is not problematic to use blatant lies to explain I\u201d or its experiences, provided they work. It should be emphasized that the boruwa I\u201d works very well. Therefore Newton\u2019s law, since they work, can be used to send rockets even though it is patta pal boruwa, and Einstein\u2019s space-time does not have to be absolutely real for scientists to observe gravitational waves.<\/p>\n

Newton\u2019s story imagined gravity as a force; Einstein\u2019s story did not have such forces. In Newton\u2019s story space and time were given. In Einstein\u2019s story space-time was determined by objects and radiation. Einstein\u2019s story was not an extension of Newton\u2019s story it is paradigmatically a different story. Most western Physicists agree on this.<\/p>\n

Newton\u2019s theory cannot explain the gravitational waves found in Einstein\u2019s general relativity. Trying to explain gravitational waves with Newton\u2019s theory would be like asking a blind man to describe color of an object while agreeing on the shape. But the question is if both theories were about the same absolute reality why it is not possible to work within Newton\u2019s theoretical frame work and come up with gravitational waves? In other words, if there is an absolute reality can there be two conceptually incompatible stories about it? Most western Physicists avoid this question hence people like Bodhi Dhanapala do not know what to say in this regard.<\/p>\n

However Theravadin Buddhists have an answer to this question. Both stories are patta pal boru; meaning that they are figments of the respective author\u2019s imaginations and has nothing to do with a so called absolute reality. These stories do agree with themselves and certain human observations, which are themselves boru, only because they were designed to be so. But they do not correspond to an absolute reality. This is what Bodhi Dhanapala seems to have a problem with. He wants to think that both Newton and Einstein theorized about gravitational force that exist in an absolute sense and that Einstein was closer to reality than Newton. However, in another 50 years or so there will be a another story about gravitation and it will explain gravitational waves plus much more than we know at present, if people like Bodhi are around they will be the first to claim that space-time is no longer the reality but something else is; this can go on forever.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately scientists who claim to be Theravadin Buddhists do not ask themselves whether I\u201d exist in the same sense that space-time exists.<\/p>\n

Janaka Wansapura<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Janaka Wansapura Gravitational waves were first predicted by Albert Einsteina century ago. A group of physicists (LIGO) based in the USA built a fine instrument to detect them and they recently found what they had believed to exist. A Canadian technical college teacher, Bodhi Dhanapala, enrolling the dead scientist\u2019s involuntary aid, implies (Island 13\/2\/16) that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52237","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-forum"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52237","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52237"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52237\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lankaweb.com\/news\/items\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}