What an interesting thread...gravity interests me and I have specific views on the accumulation of truths we hold up as the final word on the subject..but for my investigations I say no one really knows zip and as such I add my thoughts to this thread even though it is now old and expired.
Newton ..the man who discovered gravity
notwithstanding his apparent scientific approach to the subject and the extraction of many usable and relevant formulea when pressed for an explanation as to the force of gravity presented his view...the force of gravity is due to God
...most scientific observation prompted by a recognition that the Church was very jealous about taking power away from God....
Is there anyone reading this who is content to accept Newtons idea that gravity is due to the force of God???
So all is well...at the time Newton was working on gravity he was exposed to the "push" concept of gravity..an associate shared this view and Newton was aware..rather than endorse a push force or a force of attraction (horrors) Newton still left grqavity to God... interestingly the Church hunted down the push gravity guy and finished him off..for the reason he lead a band of children ...this was the reason cited by the church for the hunt however I feel it was this chaps determination to attribute gravity to a force other than God that got the church after him....and so who is next on the gravity subject...Dr A of course...and do we get Dr A buying into the force aspect of gravity..no way..Dr A's genius was in the fact that he provided knowledge of gravity that in no way erroded God's power to provive it... So we now ask someone who understands general relativity about gravity and are told there is no force..it is as if the sums make the objects move..force who needs a force..the sums make it work..I feel that view misses a realtiy which should no have to be explained but to those who need explaination can not see that gravity needs a force..the sums are not enough to make gravity work...
Gravity I feel can be expalined as an external pushing force perhaps due to particle pressure... dark energy can only work as an external pushing force and I suspect that gravity is an extention of what we now call dark energy.
However my point is General Relativity certainly describes gravity as not needing a force however such an approach I feel fails to appreciate sums alone do not govern the Universe they can merely interprete matters that are in play...
alex