Re: Beam me up - trying to get a basic understanding of GR

Thanks to all for their time and input.
Unfortunately I am tending more toward the 'crank' side of things at
the moment,
and all my answerers are on the other side!!
I could happily get stuck into applying the Lorentz transformations
etc, and may
still do that. However, it appears to me that one can find logical
inconsistency
within the propositions of SR/GR which, if true, obviously disproves
the
correctness of the theory as a whole (but obviously not of the
experimental
observations which it attempts to explain).
1. It seems to me that one can philosophically prove the existence of
an absolute
frame of reference. Does this bother SR/GR? I don't know. Any takers?
2. If SR/GR rule that time dilates, in actual fact, according to speed,
then this
leads immediately to a direct logical contradiction.
If SR/GR rule that time only *appears* to dilate according to speed,
(i.e. the
travelling twin in the twin paradox is NOT younger upon return) then
this leads to a
logical impossibility.
Any takers on this one? (Which proposition is it, by the way? Does the
traveller's
time REALLY dilate the faster they go?)

I'm not trying to be rude or arrogant, by the way. Just trying to
resolve what
appears to me to be logically inconsistent. I'll be just as glad to be
shown wrong,
and why, as not.

.