Against the Expansion of Space

Cosmologists tell us that space is expanding. Galaxies recede, the universe stretches, and the very fabric of spacetime swells like a cosmic balloon. The image is seductive: space as a thing that grows, carrying everything along with it.

But this is a metaphor that misleads. Space is not a substance to expand; it is a relational system of events. Galaxies do not drift apart because space stretches beneath them; they separate because the network of relations among events is reconfiguring. Expansion is not a property of space but a description of how potentials are phased and aligned across the unfolding of the universe.

To speak of “stretching space” is to smuggle in a backdrop where none exists. The relational cut shows us that what we observe is not a pre-existing medium being pulled apart, but the continuous actualisation of relations that define distance, alignment, and interaction. The universe does not expand; the relational order of events scales.

So we can state it sharply:

Space does not expand — only the relations between events do.