Aether: The Physicalists' God

Matter is 99.9999...% empty space. Reduce yourself to the size of the smallest particle and you will still see nothing more than empty space. Matter is made of fields and fields are little more than apparitions.

Time, space, and matter start with the quantum, and quanta can exist only when in motion. Field motion, or energy, turns into matter. If we could stop the motion, matter would go back to being just flat empty space. Outside of time, quantum events are not possible. There is time and space because there is motion, and there is motion because there is energy. The gravitational aether itself does not move, matter does, the quantum does. As Einstein used to say: energy is space in motion. In this sense, aether is synonymous to energy, it is pure energy.

Matter is condensed space and energy is space in motion. Matter is the same as energy, hence E=mc^2. Whether there is an aether or not is finally answered: the aether is but does not exist until it turns into matter.