Of course not. Space can contract, too.
Another non demonstrabled claim I presume?
Or Space can be held fixed through a cosmological constant
IMO you're a little "loose and wild" with your terms. "Spacetime" can expand as the objects and energy that make up spacetime move away from one another. Spacetime can contract as well, as the objects of spacetime move toward one another. Spacetime can remain reasonably stable, in orbital configurations too, and with the help of some other *known* force of nature, say EM fields, we *might* create a stable universe of matter.
Your term "space" is still undefined at the level of actual physics. The metric that you described is simply a mathematical metric. It's not "space". Unlike the object movement expansion and contraction process we see in the lab, you're proposing *something else entirely*, that GR does *not* depend on. I have no use for such a claim. Why do you? The unsupported claim is used in exactly *one* otherwise falsified cosmology theory.
Praying for a miracle in 2015 are you? What if they find no new forms of exotic matter than happen to be long lived enough to explain 'dark matter'? Will you just "live on faith' in exotic matter for the rest of your natural life? Is there any time limit on your patience and faith in long lived forms of exotic matter in the absence of any useful lab results?
(but not EM, which is made of and mediated by normal matter).
This is the basic problem in astronomy. You're not willing to include EM field influences of moving charged objects to GR geometry, and you're trying to justify it by any ridiculous means necessary. Charged objects can both repel and attract.
I did not fail to acknowledge your point. Your point is irrelevant to your question. You asked what space was. I told you how to distinguish it from spacetime.
No you didn't. You took *one component* from GR theory, tweaked the term and meaning of the term to suit yourself, and claimed it represents 'space'.
The metric as signature +++- whether space expand, contracts, stays the same, or pirouettes like a dancer. Space has the same definition in all of those cases.
The metric isn't "space", it's a distance metric. You're endowing a distance metric with supernatural powers that never occurs in any lab on Earth, or in this galaxy, and you expect me to believe you that it 'just happens' somewhere out there in 'spacetime' where humans can inconveniently never get to? Come on. I've heard some *whoppers* in my time, but you're taking a mathematical symbol (a metric) and endowing it with metaphysical properties.
Any creationists want to comment?
Biologists have indeed demonstrated many evolutionary processes in the lab, but there just is not enough time to demonstrate 'goo to you' evolution in the lab. Rather, other forms of evidence (fossils, etc.) provide us with the necessary information to come to the conclusion that that kind of macroevolution occurred.
Sure, but microscopic evolution can be demonstrated in the lab. Hox gene experiments show that *significant* physical changes can occur in a single generation depending on the gene that is mutated. As you noted we also have an entire collection of fossil evidence. It's not like there is no *tangible on Earth* evidence to support the claim. You're comparing natural, good empirical oranges to poisonous metaphysical invisible apples.
Similarly, time dilation has been measured in the lab. As you admit, time and space are intermingled. So we have no rational reason to forbid spatial expansion.
We can demonstrate time dilation in experiments on Earth and around Earth. It's not like I have to 'take it on faith' that time is modified by mass. You didn't demonstrate that spatial expansion is modified by mass. You're *assuming* it. The distance between objects can be modified by the movement of mass, but you simply *assumed* a supernatural form of expansion.
If clocks wiggle, rulers wobble.
This is akin to insisting that because electric fields have a source and a sink that magnetic fields must also have them. Sorry, but one claim does *not* follow the other. The clocks can wiggle without rulers wobbling. In fact that's *exactly* how it works in the lab.
You can stick your head in the sand if you want; I don't care. But my definition of space did not depend on the expansion. My definition pertains to all forms of GR. So at least you can stop whining about space not being defined.
You still never *physically* defined it! You pointed at a metric in a math formula and relabeled it something else, and endowed it with a *new* property that GR is *not* dependent upon.
Until I get a *physical* definition of space, your just assuming things about GR theory to suit yourself, things that GR theory doesn't necessarily *assume*, and *definitely doesn't *require*.
You can bury your head in the sand if you want, but GR theory is not now, nor will it ever be dependent upon your *non demonstrated* claim. It works fine without your claim. It works fine to explain expansion contraction and stable configurations without your claim. Your claim is *not* a requirement in GR, it's a *desire* on your part perhaps, but not a demonstrated *physical feature* of GR.