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Based on thermodynamic calculations of the substantial Universe, it is shown that the cosmological theory of the Big Bang is erroneous. The thermodynamic ban on this theory makes the hypothesis of dark energy expanding the substantial Universe also erroneous. It is shown that the substantial Universe is a thermodynamically equilibrium system. Therefore, the substantial Universe cannot disintegrate, losing its structure, cannot shrink to a point, cannot disappear into a black hole. The equilibrium substantial Universe exists forever, preserving its enthalpy, entropy, mass and temperature. The main reason for the redshift of spectral lines of light from distant stars and galaxies is not the expansion of the substantial Universe, but its clouds of gas and dust, which reduce the energy of photons.

We study the impact of the expansion of the universe on a broad class of objects, including black holes, neutron stars, white dwarfs, and others. Using metrics that incorporate primordial inhomogeneities, the effects of a hypothetical “center of the universe” on inflation are calculated. Dynamic coordinates for black holes that account for expansions or contractions with arbitrary rates are provided. We consider the possibility that the universe may be bound to evolve into an ultimate state of “total dilution”, wherein stable particles are so widely separated that physical communication among them will be impossible for eternity. This is also a scenario of “cosmic virtuality”, as no wave-function collapse would occur again. We provide classical models evolving this way, based on the Majumdar–Papapetrou geometries. More realistic configurations, instead, indicate that gravitational forces locally counteract expansion, except in the universe’s early stages. We comment on whether quantum phenomena may dictate that total dilution is indeed the cosmos’ ultimate destiny.

The Big Bang is the most accepted theory of how the Universe was born. However, this theory explains only the development of the Universe, not its origination. This paper develops two main ideas: a) that a strong philosophical approach encourages innovative thinking through the sharing of new scientific enlightenment, and b) the origination of “something” from “nothing” without violating the conservation laws. The second idea underlies our Universal Theory of Origination (UTO). The Universe has evolved on cosmological, physical, biological, psychological, and intellectual (human) levels. Our UTO explains how upper-level substances originate from lower-level substances. The origination of the physical level based on the origination of the biological level is described stepwise using a unitary law. We also provide a scope for understanding the origination of the biological, psychological, and intellectual levels. Our hypothesis is supported by a) well-known formal research and experiments, and b) an inference proof that nature behaves in a unitary way from one level to another. In the UTO, a fact can be displaced to another level by changing only the adjectives. A known aspect at one level can be interpreted on another level, giving rise to unknown truths. This work provides the basis of UTO, in turn resolving many open questions such as the origination of the physical world, space expansion, expansion acceleration, looking back in time, and the differences between galaxies.

The paper shows that the commonly used Friedmann-Lemaitre-Robertson-Walker (FLRW) metric describing the expanding Universe must be modified to properly predict the cosmological redshift. It is proved that the change in the frequency of redshifted photons is always connected with time dilation, similarly as for the gravitational redshift. Therefore, the cosmic time runs differently at high redshifts than at present. Consequently, the cosmological time must be identified with the conformal time and the standard FLRW metric must be substituted by its conformal version. The correctness of the proposed conformal metric is convincingly confirmed by Type Ia supernovae (SNe Ia) observations. The standard FLRW metric produces essential discrepancy with the SNe Ia observations called the ‘supernova dimming’, and dark energy has to be introduced to comply theoretical predictions with data. By contrast, the conformal FLRW metric fits data well with no need to introduce any new free parameter. Hence, the discovery of the supernova dimming actually revealed a failure of the FLRW metric and introducing dark energy was just an unsuccessful attempt to cope with the problem within this false metric. Obviously, adopting the conformal FLRW metric for describing the evolution of the Universe has many fundamental cosmological consequences.

The debate on the ontological status of spacetime in General Relativity has historically seen two principal philosophical contenders: substantivalism, roughly the view that holds that spacetime exists apart from the material contents of the universe, and relationism, the doctrine that spacetime does not exist, i.e., it is a mere abstract web of spatiotemporal relations among bodies. This dispute, however, has rarely been fought on a cosmological battlefield. In this paper an attempt in this direction is made. The question at issue is the following: is there any feature of our universe that requires or is best explained in terms of a substantival space? I claim that there is indeed: the expansion of the universe, perhaps the most important phenomenon in cosmology, can play such a role.

Alexander Friedmann, Carl Wilhelm Wirtz, Vesto Slipher, Knut E. Lundmark, Willem de Sitter, Georges H. Lemaître, and Edwin Hubble all contributed to the discovery of the expansion of the universe. If only two persons are to be ranked as the most important ones for the general acceptance of the expansion of the universe, the historical evidence points at Lemaître and Hubble, and the proper answer to the question, “Who discovered the expansion of the universe?”, is Georges H. Lemaître.