Are gaps in scientific knowledge evidence for God? In a Nutshell
Every field of science has unanswered questions and gaps in our
understanding. Scientists typically view these as open research
questions. Others sometimes argue that if science can’t explain
how something happened, then God must be the explanation. Such
arguments are called “god-of-the-gaps” arguments. The risk in
these arguments is that science is always developing. If gaps in
scientific knowledge are the basis for belief in God, then as
scientists fill in the gaps, the evidence for God disappears.
The God of the Bible, however, is much more than a god of the
gaps. Christians believe that God is always at work in the
natural world, in the gaps as well as in the areas that science
can explain. God-of-the-gaps arguments use gaps in scientific
explanation as indicators, or even proof, of God’s action and
therefore of God’s existence. Such arguments propose divine acts
in place of natural, scientific causes for phenomena that
science cannot yet ex