In the Newtonian mechanistic worldview, space and time are distinct and absolute. Nevertheless, the underlying geometry of Minkowskian space-time remains absolute. Einstein's equations are highly nonlinear, which is why traditionally-trained mathematicians find them so difficult to solve.
Black holes are by now well known, and wormholes are beginning to make the charts.
With Einstein, for example, we see the end of a kind of privilege of empiric evidence.