The following article by Dr. Janaka Wansapura, senior lecturer in Physics at the university of Colombo is a reply to an article by Mr. Bodhi Dhanapala published in "The Island" . I have been informed that The Island did not carry the reply.-- Nalin de Silva
Does observation of
gravitational waves make Einstein’s space-time a patta aththa?
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’s involuntary aid,
implies (Island 13/2/16) that this discovery falsifies Nalin de Silva’s 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.
Nalin de
Silva’s, 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’s 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.
Theravadin Bhuddhists
believe in the idea of there being no self or that “I” is a lie (boru, musa,
maya, unreal, etc.). If “I” is a lie then all experiences of “I” must be lies
as well. If this “I” 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.
If “I” is a
lie and that I’s experiences are lies, it is not problematic to use blatant
lies to explain “I” or its experiences, provided they work. It should be
emphasized that the boruwa “I” works very well. Therefore Newton’s law, since they
work, can be used to send rockets even though it is patta pal boruwa, and
Einstein’s space-time does not have to be absolutely real for scientists to
observe gravitational waves.
Newton’s
story imagined gravity as a force; Einstein’s story did not have such forces. In
Newton’s story space and time were given. In Einstein’s story space-time was
determined by objects and radiation. Einstein’s story was not an extension of
Newton’s story it is paradigmatically a different story. Most western
Physicists agree on this.
Newton’s
theory cannot explain the gravitational waves found in Einstein’s general
relativity. Trying to explain gravitational waves with Newton’s 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’s 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.
However Theravadin
Buddhists have an answer to this question. Both stories are patta pal boru;
meaning that they are figments of the respective author’s 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.
Unfortunately
scientists who claim to be Theravadin Buddhists do not ask themselves whether “I”
exist in the same sense that space-time exists.