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In reply, those who favored the concept of quasars being local used statistical probabilities to indicate that it was highly unlikely that these associations were coincidental. Further observation showed that there are many cases where the association of galaxy, radiofrequency lobes, x-ray emitting objects, quasars and small galaxies is arranged in such a manner as to indicate that we are witness to the creation of new companion galaxies. One possibility is that our Milky Way galaxy is actually the offspring of the giant Andromeda galaxy.
In support of the interpretation that quasars are local objects, it is proposed that at least part of the red shift of quasars, and like objects, is an indicator of their age rather than of their recessional velocity. The measurement of the red shift for some galaxies, plus their associated quasars and small companion galaxies is also claimed as evidence that their geometrical arrangement is in accord with what would be expected if the jets often seen being emitted from and at right angles to the plane through their active center, is indicative of the path taken by newly created matter that subsequently becomes quasars and small galaxies. This claim assumes the red shift to be an indicator of the age since creation of the new matter.
Halton Arp, in his book Seeing Red (Apeiron Press, Montreal, 1998) provides accounts and pictures of much of the hard evidence for this interpretation of the meaning of the red shift. It differs from that given by the authors of the Urantia Papers in that Arp attributes all of the red shift not accounted for by Doppler effects (i.e. the recessional velocity) to one cause whereas the Urantia paper nominates a number of causes. Age is not one of these, but we need to remember that the authors of the Papers state explicitly in their discussion of the mandate for revelation that they are not in the business of providing us with unearned knowledge--although they are permitted to divulge key information.
To this point our discussion has revolved around the evidence about the red shift rather than its interpretation. The principal evidence in favor of the red shift being intrinsic rather than due to recessional velocity is the often-encountered association of radio frequency and X-ray lobes of active galaxies with the occurrence of matching quasars and the results of statistical analysis of the probability of that association--plus the geometrical arrangements of these components and their correspondence with the jets radiating directly from a galactic center. Also in its favor is that the nearby location afforded to quasars does away with the otherwise incredible outpouring of radiant energy that must be attributed to quasars if their actual distance from us is calculated from a red shift attributed to recessional velocity.
Arp postulates that intrinsic red shift is a measure of the age of matter. This comes about because at the moment of an object's creation, he attributes it with zero mass.
Mass, Arp says , is Machian. Ernest Mach earned some of his well deserved fame through his postulate that every particle in the universe derives its inertia from the rest of the particles in the universe.
Taking a newly created electron as an example, it would commence its life with zero mass because it has no "knowledge" of any other particle in the universe. Associated with the electron is a wave which is sent out in all directions and provides information to its source. Operating at the speed of light this "knowledge collecting agency" enables the electron to accumulate mass. Mass then is a variable, dependent on its time since creation. However the rate of change would be minuscule and not directly observable by short-lived creatures such as ourselves.
Bizarre as it might appear to be to the unitiated, the concept would not be bizarre to quantum physicists who have become accustomed to bizarre concepts that are now firmly based upon empirical evidence. For example, when one of a pair of correlated photons is observed, it communicates change to its partner instantaneously, regardless of the distance by which the pair are separated.
How a particle actually gets its mass remains a mystery. Many believe a hypothetical "Higgs particle" is somehow responsible, but even if the existence of the Higgs is eventually confirmed, just how it confers mass may still remain a mystery.
The concept of an "information" wave is not new. Something similar was proposed by quantum physicist, David Bohm, and received much support. However Bohm did not connect his wave with the creation of mass. And can we really assert that Arp's proposal is any more bizarre than that a Big Bang was the means by which a spontaneous explosion created all from nothingness?
Of interest is the fact that the authors of the Urantia Paper have taken, for them, the unusual step of simply stating that our human interpretation of the cause of the red shift is wrong. In relatively few instances have they taken such a step.
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