The God of the gaps refers to a view of God deriving from a theistic position in which anything that can be explained by human knowledge is not in the domain of God, so the role of God is therefore confined to the 'gaps' in scientific explanations of nature. The concept involves an interaction of religious explanations of nature with those derived from science (see also Relationship between religion and science). Within the traditional theistic view of God as existing in a realm "beyond nature", as science progresses to explain more and more, the perceived scope of the role of God tends to shrink as a result. Theism is the belief in one or more gods or goddesses. ... This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ... Various Religious symbols, including (first row) Christian, Jewish, Hindu, Bahai, (second row) Islamic, tribal, Taoist, Shinto (third row) Buddhist, Sikh, Hindu, Jain, (fourth row) Ayyavazhi, Triple Goddess, Maltese cross, pre-Christian Slavonic Religion is the adherence to codified beliefs and rituals that generally involve a faith in a spiritual... Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ... Part of a scientific laboratory at the University of Cologne. ... Science and Religion are portrayed to be in harmony in the Tiffany window Education (1890). ...

"God of the gaps" is often used to describe the perceived retreat of religion in the face of increasingly comprehensive scientific explanations of natural phenomena. An example of the line of reasoning starts with the position that early religious descriptions of objects and events (such as the Sun, Moon, and stars; thunder and lightning) placed these in the realm of things created or controlled by a god or gods. As science found explanations for observations in the realms of astronomy, meteorology, geology, cosmology and biology, the 'need' for a god to explain phenomena was progressively reduced, occupying smaller and smaller 'gaps' in knowledge. This line of reasoning commonly holds that since the domain of natural phenomena previously explained by God is shrinking, theistic or divine explanations for any natural phenomenon become less plausible. A phenomenon (plural: phenomena) is an observable event, especially something special (literally something that can be seen from the Greek word phainomenon = observable). ... The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. ... Apparent magnitude: up to -12. ... This article is about the astronomical object. ... Thunder is the sound of the shockwave caused when lightning instantly heats the air around it to up to 30 000 °C (54 000 °F). ... Double lightning. ... This list of deities aims to give information about deities in the different religions, cultures and mythologies of the world. ... A giant Hubble mosaic of the Crab Nebula, a supernova remnant Astronomy is the science of celestial objects (such as stars, planets, comets, and galaxies) and phenomena that originate outside the Earths atmosphere (such as auroras and cosmic background radiation). ... Satellite image of Hurricane Hugo with a polar low visible at the top of the image. ... This article includes a list of works cited but its sources remain unclear because it lacks in-text citations. ... Physical cosmology, as a branch of astrophysics, is the study of the large-scale structure of the universe and is concerned with fundamental questions about its formation and evolution. ... This article or section does not adequately cite its references or sources. ... Personification of knowledge (Greek Επιστημη, Episteme) in Celsus Library in Ephesos, Turkey. ...

One modern example of God in the gaps is the theory of life. Theories of the origin of life remain outstanding questions and scientific consensus has yet to form; the position of many theists retains these within the domain of God.

Origins of the term

The term goes back to Henry Drummond, a 19th century evangelical lecturer, from his Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man. He chastises those Christians who point to the things that science can not yet explain – "gaps which they will fill up with God" – and urges them to embrace all nature as God's, as the work of "... an immanent God, which is the God of Evolution, is infinitely grander than the occasional wonder-worker, who is the God of an old theology." Henry Drummond (August 17, 1851 - March 11, 1897), Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer, was born in Stirling. ... Alternative meaning: Nineteenth Century (periodical) (18th century — 19th century — 20th century — more centuries) As a means of recording the passage of time, the 19th century was that century which lasted from 1801-1900 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar. ... The word evangelicalism usually refers to religious practices and traditions which are found in conservative, almost always Protestant Christianity. ... Christians believe that Jesus is the mediator of the New Covenant (see Hebrews 8:6). ...

In the 20th century the term was used by Dietrich Bonhoeffer in letters he wrote while in a Nazi prison during World War II, which were not made public until years later. The term gained attention in 1955 when it was used in the book Science and Christian Belief by Charles Alfred Coulson, where Coulson states: "There is no 'God of the gaps' to take over at those strategic places where science fails; and the reason is that gaps of this sort have the unpreventable habit of shrinking." (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer [] (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and founding member of the Confessing Church. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000... Charles Alfred Coulson (1910-1974) was a prominent researcher in the field of theoretical chemistry. ...

After simmering in theological and philosophical circles, the term gained yet wider attention from a 1971 book and a 1978 article, both by Richard Bube. He articulated the concept in far greater detail, most notably in Man Come Of Age: Bonhoeffer’s Response To The God-Of-The-Gaps (1971). Bube attributed modern crises in religious faith in part to the inexorable shrinking of the God-of-the-gaps as scientific knowledge progressed. As humans progressively increased their understanding of nature, the previous "realm" of God seemed to many persons and religions to be getting smaller and smaller by comparison. Bube maintained that Darwin's Origin of Species was the "death knell" of the God-of-the-gaps. Very importantly, Bube also maintained that the God-of-the-gaps was not the same as the God of the Bible (that is, he was not making an argument against God per se, but rather asserting there was a fundamental problem with the perception of God as filling in the gaps of knowledge). Theology is literally rational discourse concerning God (Greek θεος, theos, God, + λογος, logos, rational discourse). By extension, it also refers to the study of other religious topics. ... Philosophy (from the Greek words philos and sophia meaning love of wisdom) is understood in different ways historically and by different philosophers. ... Galunggung in 1982, showing a combination of natural events. ... For other people of the same surname, and places and things named after Charles Darwin, see Darwin. ... The 1859 edition of On the Origin of Species First published in 1859, The Origin of Species (full title On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life) by British naturalist Charles Darwin is one of the pivotal...

Since the 1970s, the term has increasingly been used by philosophers and theologians in reference to the problem of making the assumption that the currently unknown is necessarily where God "resides."

The "God-of-the-gaps argument" in modern usage

The term God-of-the-gaps argument usually refers to an argument that assumes an act of God as the explanation for an unknown phenomenon, and is a variant of an argument from ignorance. Commonly such an argument can be reduced to the following form: Act of God is a common legal term for events outside of human control, such as sudden floods or other natural disasters, for which no one can be held responsible. ... The argument from ignorance, also known as argumentum ad ignorantiam (appeal to ignorance [1]) or argument by lack of imagination, is a logical fallacy in which it is claimed that a premise is true only because it has not been proven false, or that a premise is false only because...

• There is a gap in scientific knowledge.
• The gap is filled with acts of a god (and therefore also proves, or helps to prove, the existence of said god).

One example of such an argument might be as follows: "Because science can't figure out exactly how species change, it must be God who causes it to happen." (See, for example, Intelligent Design) For the scientific journal named Science, see Science (journal). ... Intelligent design (ID) is the concept that certain features of the universe and of living things are best explained by an intelligent cause, not an undirected process such as natural selection. ...

See also

• Argument from ignorance
• Clockmaker hypothesis
• Deism
• Faith and rationality
• Lie-to-children
• Theism
• Creation according to Genesis

The argument from ignorance, also known as argumentum ad ignorantiam (appeal to ignorance [1]) or argument by lack of imagination, is a logical fallacy in which it is claimed that a premise is true only because it has not been proven false, or that a premise is false only because... The Clockmaker hypothesis is a tenet of deism that states that some higher power, such as God, created the universe (for example, in the Big Bang) and then stepped aside after the moment of creation. ... Deism is a religious philosophy and movement that became prominent in England, France, and the United States in the 17th and 18th centuries. ... Faith and rationality are two modes of belief which are seen to exist in varying degrees of conflict or compatibility. ... A lie-to-children is an expression that describes a form of simplification of material for consumption by children. ... Theism is the belief in the existence of one or more gods or deities. ... Creation according to Genesis refers to the description of the creation of the heavens and the earth by God, as described in Genesis, the first book of the Bible. ...

References

• Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1997 (ISBN 978-0-684-83827-4) "Letter to Eberhard Bethge", 29 May 1944, pages 310-312.

• Richard H. Bube, "Man Come Of Age: Bonhoeffer's Response To The God-Of-The-Gaps," Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society, volume 14 fall (1971), pages 203-220.

• C. A. Coulson, Science and Christian Belief (The John Calvin McNair Lectures, 1954), London: Oxford University Press, 1955. Page 20, see also page 28.

• Henry Drummond, The Lowell Lectures on the Ascent of Man, Glasgow: Hodder and Stoughton, 1904 (Chapter 10, containing the relevant text).

Dietrich Bonhoeffer Dietrich Bonhoeffer [] (February 4, 1906 – April 9, 1945) was a German Lutheran pastor, theologian and participant in the German resistance movement against Nazism and founding member of the Confessing Church. ... Charles Alfred Coulson (1910-1974) was a prominent researcher in the field of theoretical chemistry. ... Henry Drummond (August 17, 1851 - March 11, 1897), Scottish evangelical writer and lecturer, was born in Stirling. ... Hodder & Stoughton is a British publishing house, now an imprint of Hodder Headline. ...

External links

• The Freethought Zone - God of the Gaps
• Miracles, Intelligent Design, and God-of-the-Gaps (PDF)
• Skeptical Christian - God of the Gaps
• A very interesting site with an article, claiming that "Quran answers the 'God of the Gaps' argument"