The God of the Gaps

On Evangelization in an Age of Science

There is a great temptation that religious believers face when discussing science and religion, the so-called “God of the gaps” argument.

This argument comes from the fact that science has not yet explained everything. There are gaps in human knowledge of the universe. We learn the scientific explanations for natural phenomena, and then we point to the things that science has not yet explained and we say “So God did that!”

It is very easy to fall for this temptation. I have on occasion caught myself thinking in that direction. The fact is that it is a terrible mistake, for the following reasons:

First, it insults God. It turns God into a crutch for human ignorance. I imagine that God wants, among other things, for us to fill in the gaps to better appreciate Him, rather than play this game.

Second, it creates an opportunity for loss of faith. Think of this: your child asks why something happens in the universe and you tell the truth, “We don’t know.” “Did God do it?” “Yes” you reply. A decade later your child comes home from school and says “Remember that conversation we had? I found out that we just discovered God didn’t do it after all!” The great loss of faith that began in Europe in the 19^th century started in part because the gaps were shrinking thanks to science.

(As an aside, this is true of mathematics as well. Throughout history Euclidean geometry has been treated with reverental certainty. Thomas Aquinas states seven times in his writings that triangles must add up to 180 degrees. In 19th century America, Euclid’s Elements outsold Ben Hur and was outsold only by the Bible. The British school system in particular had idolized Euclidian geometry, and this led to a loss of faith after non-Euclidean geometries were discovered in the 19th century by Nikolai Lobachevsky, János Bolyai, and Bernhard Reimann; some historians hold this was even more a factor than with Darwin. In these geometries triangles are less or more that 180 degrees due to negative or positive curvature of surfaces or space.)

Third, it denies that all natural phenomena belong to God. Primordial energy, matter, gravity, galaxy and solar system formation, the origins and evolution of life, plate tectonics, all belong to Him. That science explains these things does not detract from this, scientific discoveries are included in God’s power and majesty, even if discovered via human reason and free will without any direct appeal to God.

So, if we are going to debate on the issues of science and religion then we must avoid this temptation. If we don’t know something, then the reason is we don’t know it. Humility is always a virtue.