God of the gaps

From Religions Wiki

A God of the gaps argument is one that argues that since some phenomenon is unexplained, it must be due to God. It is also a form of argument from ignorance and a non sequitur, since the hand of God is posited without proof and often with complete disregard to other possible explanations.

St. Augustine argued that some religious beliefs may be overthrown by progress in human knowledge:

"In matters that are so obscure and far beyond our vision, we find in Holy Scripture passages which can be interpreted in very different ways without prejudice to the faith we have received. In such cases, we should not rush in headlong and so firmly take our stand on one side that, if further progress in the search for truth justly undermines this position, we too fall with it."

As new explanations emerge, the gaps in our knowledge shrink, leaving less and less room in which to fit a god. Since human knowledge keeps growing all the time, it does not seem like a safe bet to assume that any given gap will remain one for very long.

Background[edit]

Sometimes a subject such as evolution is not understood by the speaker but may be well understood by many others, such as scientists. Of course, evolution is not a theory of chance, and has well established mechanisms underlying it.

For Bill O'Reilly: The moon causes the tides, due to gravitational tidal effects as it revolves around the earth.[1]

Even when a subject is not well understood (i.e., the origin of the universe), that is not sufficient grounds for assuming an unproven answer like "God did it". Since the "explanation" of God is more complex than the entities that are purportedly explained by God, introducing God without evidence is simply begging the question.

There is a time where people need to understand that there are certain things that we currently do not possess the technology to know about. This is where the dreaded truth must come in - I don't know.

Examples[edit]

Counter-apologetics[edit]

Unstated premise[edit]

The argument from ignorance is, at heart, an Enthymeme, a syllogism with an unstated premise:

  1. I don't understand how x could have happened.
  2. Anything I don't understand is caused by God.
  3. Therefore, God caused x.

(unstated premise highlighted.)

Gaps are shrinking[edit]

Main Article: God of the shrinking gaps

A god of the gaps argument is an argument from ignorance: it boils down to "We do not know how X happened, therefore X was caused by a god." However, ignorance is never an argument for something. It merely means we do not (yet) know the cause of the phenomenon.

To see why this argument is a fallacy, we can consider similar arguments could have been made at different points in human history:

  • 2000 years ago: "We do not know what causes lightning, therefore it must be a god throwing lightning bolts from the sky."
  • 1000 years ago: "We do not know what keeps the planets in their courses. There must be angels pushing them along."
  • 500 years ago: "We do not know what causes diseases, therefore they must be punishments from God."
  • 200 years ago: "We do not know how the many species of plants and animals could have appeared, therefore God must have created them."
  • 100 years ago: "We do not know how the universe started, therefore God must have done it."
  • 60 years ago: "We do not know how genes are passed from parent to child, therefore traits must be imprinted upon the soul."

As new explanations emerge, the gaps in our knowledge shrink, leaving less and less room in which to fit a god. Since human knowledge keeps growing all the time, it does not seem like a safe bet to assume that any given gap will remain one for very long.

"A word of caution is needed when inserting specific divine action by God in this or any other area where scientific understanding is currently lacking. From solar eclipses in olden times to the movement of the planets in the Middle Ages, to the origins of life today, this "God of the gaps" approach has all too often done a disservice to religion (and by implication, to God, if that's possible). Faith that places God in the gaps of current understanding about the natural world may be headed for crisis if advances in science subsequently fill those gaps."

Francis Collins, The Language of God

Naturalism has been more successful than theism[edit]

Previous gaps in knowledge have often been explained by naturalism, while no direct reliable evidence has ever been provided for a theistic explanation. Therefore, any remaining gaps are more likely to be explainable using naturalism rather than theism.

"What I see is the trend over history is if you have two horses in a race, one wins a thousand races and every single race its won, the other horse has never won any of those thousand races yet. Any remaining questions in which we can't explain something, you put those two horses against each other, which horse are you going to bet on? Obviously they are going to be on the winner of every one of its thousand races and you are not going to bet on the horse that's lost every race its run. So when we come to the things we can't explain yet, I'm looking at the trend and the trend is giving a very high prior probability is we are going to see the explanations come out as naturalism rather than theism."

Richard Carrier[3]

An insufficient explanation[edit]

Another objection can be made to the argument's means of ignoring the question it originally intends to answer. God is a poor explanation because it is not predictive or falsifiable. Explanations attempt to relate an unknown phenomena with known processes and entities. However, God is inherently unknowable. Saying God is an explanation for an phenomenon has been referred to as the "fallacy of using one mystery to pseudo-explain another". [4]

For example, answering "What caused the big bang?" with "God did it" still does not answer the question of origins, as the god inserted into the gap still requires an explanation. According to the ultimate 747 gambit, the origin of God is the biggest mystery and is therefore inappropriate to use as an explanation.

How, not What[edit]

Theists are frequently intolerant of scientific concepts that seek to provide naturalistic explanations. It is not difficult to reach a "compromise" where the theist adopts the full scientific explanation without challenge. By asking the theist "How did God do this?", the theist generally becomes receptive to the scientific explanation.

By presenting arguments in a manner that theists can accept, they gain knowledge, which is always poisonous to theistic belief.

Wrong Premise[edit]

The real question isn't "Is it possible that God exists in the unknown?" it's "Is it probable?" We should be concerned with whether or not a thing is actually true or likely true - not whether it's possibly true.

A Leap of Faith[edit]

Main Article: Which God?

Even if there is some supernatural being behind what science can't explain, what proof is there that it is the God of Classical Theism rather than Zeus, or Amun Ra, or Cthulhu?

Counter arguments[edit]

Some things science can't explain[edit]

Many philosophers consider things like morality to be beyond what science can explain. Others writers, such as Sam Harris, argue that science can answer moral questions.

Naturalism doesn't necessitate God's non-existence[edit]

Even if we accept naturalism's success in explaining phenomena, that doesn't necessitate God's non-existence. It merely means God is not supernatural. However, this is incompatible with many religions and their theologies.

References[edit]

See also[edit]

v · d Arguments for the existence of god
Anthropic arguments   Anthropic principle · Natural-law argument
Arguments for belief   Pascal's Wager · Argument from faith · Just hit your knees
Christological arguments   Argument from scriptural miracles · Would someone die for a lie? · Liar, Lunatic or Lord
Cosmological arguments   Argument from aesthetic experience · Argument from contingency · Cosmological argument · Fine-tuning argument · Kalam · Leibniz cosmological argument · Principle of sufficient reason · Unmoved mover · Why is there something rather than nothing?
Majority arguments   Argument from admired religious scientists
Moral arguments   Argument from justice · Divine command theory
Ontological argument   Argument from degree · Argument from desire · Origin of the idea of God
Dogmatic arguments   Argument from divine sense · Argument from uniqueness
Teleological arguments   Argument from design · Banana argument · 747 Junkyard argument · Laminin argument · Argument from natural disasters
Testimonial arguments   Argument from observed miracles · Personal experience · Argument from consciousness · Emotional pleas · Efficacy of prayer
Transcendental arguments   God created numbers · Argument from the meaning of life
Scriptural arguments   Scriptural inerrancy · Scriptural scientific foreknowledge · Scriptural codes