Einstein On Empty Space

In a note added to the fifteenth edition of his book Relativity, Albert Einstein wrote the following:


"I wished to show that space-time is not necessarily something to which one can ascribe a separate existence, independently of the actual objects of physical reality.  Physical objects are not in space, but these objects are spatially extended.  In this way the concept 'empty space' loses its meaning." (vii)


I am going to refute this false notion that space has no existence independent of material objects.  If the entire external world--the fullness of the cosmos--did not exist at all, space itself would still exist.  Before I proceed, I need to ask and answer a crucial question.  What is space?  Space is only an area where matter resides or that could be occupied by matter, and thus is itself a nonphysical dimension.  That is all space is.

The word space is often used in reference to not just a
nonphysical dimension, but also a place occupied by
matter, hence the phrase “outer space” referring not to
a (in itself) matterless dimension but to the physical
cosmos beyond our planet.

As several moments of rational reflection will reveal, even without any matter to occupy it, space would still exist--because there would still be a place that could hold matter.  The Big Bang did not create space, as space precedes the creation of the cosmos by logical necessity.  Before the Big Bang, there would still inescapably be a vast, infinite dimension, devoid of matter, that has the potential to hold a world of physical objects.

The physical cosmos only exists because of the creative action of the uncaused cause/God [1].  But since space is not comprised of matter, and thus does not depend on matter for its existence, as it is only the place matter could hold a position in, it follows that space would exist even in an alternate reality where God never created, since 1) in a reality where God did not create, uncreated things would still exist, and since 2) space cannot not exist (there is no such thing as a possible reality without any area that matter could inhabit) it is by necessity uncreated.  This means that space not only does not depend on matter for its existence; it also does not depend on God, since it cannot not exist.

Ultimately, space is within a very small handful of things that exists independently of even God himself (alongside logic).  There can be an absence of matter, and one can easily imagine such a thing, but there cannot be an absence of a space that matter could inhabit.  It is impossible for absolutely nothing at all to exist, but it is possible for neither matter nor consciousnesses to exist [2].  Logic, which cannot be false, plainly reveals that space exists in the total absence of all matter.  Einstein was wrong.

Relativity: The Special and the General Theory.  Einstein, Albert.  Trans. Lawson, Robert.  New York: Three Rivers Press, 1961.  Print.


[1].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2017/04/the-uncaused-cause.html

[2].  https://thechristianrationalist.blogspot.com/2018/04/the-impossibility-of-absolutely-nothing.html