God of Gaps 2-Some Gaps Have Been More Opening

http://www.evidenceunseen.com/articles/science-and-scripture/what-about-the-god-of-the-gaps/

To a large degree, Boghossian is right: Science has disproven various supernatural claims throughout the centuries. For instance, the ancient Canaanites believed that rain came from Baal—the fertility god—and they would sacrifice their children in order to make it rain on their crops. However, scientific progress has closed this “gap” in our understanding. The formation of a rain cloud in the sky is not causally linked with how many children we can sacrifice to Baal. Rain clouds arise by the natural processes of atmospheric pressure and precipitation. Since more and more supposedly “supernatural” events are being explained away as purely natural, atheists claim that it’s just a matter of time before all scientific evidence for God is explained. The gaps will close indefinitely, and eventually, God will disappear in the process.

Some gaps have been opening—not closing

Scientific progress has surely closed many gaps in our understanding. And yet, some gaps have not been closing, but opening, with the progress of scientific exploration. We might say that scientific experimentation has grown, but in some fields of study, scientific explanations have shrunk.

Consider the origin of life. Scientifically, we know more about life’s origin than ever before. In this sense, our scientific experimentation has increased, but in another sense, our scientific explanations have only decreased with time. In 2010, agnostic Paul Davies explained, “All that can be said at this time is that the problem of life’s origin is very far from being clearly formulated, and nowhere near being solved.”[2] In preparation for a 2014 conference in Japan (called “Open Questions on the Origin of Life”), research biologist P. L. Luisi writes:

The scientific question about the origin of life is still unanswered: it is still one of the great mysteries that science is facing… Which conceptual progress have we made…? It is [sic] too much to say that we didn’t really make any, if we look at data under really and honest prebiotic conditions? Adding that this situation is not due to shortage of means and finances in the field—but to a real lack of difficulty to conceive conceptually how this nonliving-living passage really took place?[3]

Naturalistic scientists are just as far from explaining the origin of life as they have ever been. In fact, the more they learn about this subject, the less they are able to explain it. In fact, this scientific lacuna raised doubts in the mind of the late atheist Antony Flew, causing him to come to faith in God.[4] Flew claimed that his other atheistic colleagues—like Bertrand Russell and J.L. Mackie—would have been “impressed” with this “evidence,”[5] if it had been discovered earlier.

Yes, science has falsified the claims of various religious systems. For instance, comparative religion scholars Carmody and Carmody write, “In Hindu cosmology the universe… has always existed and always will… The Hindu explanation of creation involves gods molding the world from preexisting stuff.”[6] However, this claim has been disproven by modern cosmology. The universe had a space-time beginning at the big bang. Since the discovery of the big bang in the 20th century, we have learned that the Judeo-Christian tradition had been right all along, while other worldviews were proven false. The Judeo-Christian worldview has always held to an ex nihilo creation (Gen. 1:1; Ps. 33:6, 9; cf. Jn. 1:1-3; Heb. 11:3), which comports nicely with the current consensus in cosmology today.

What a stark difference from worldviews like Hinduism or even naturalism! Who would’ve expected that the biblical view had been correct for thousands of years, while Hindus and naturalists alike were in the wrong?

I gave a lecture this year on the cosmological argument, and as part of my presentation, I appealed to big bang cosmology. Afterwards, during the Q & A portion of the talk, a student asked me, “So, what happens when science eventually disproves that God caused the big bang? What will you say then?” Politely, I told the student, “Imagine if I showed up tonight to teach, and I said, ‘There is a lot of scientific evidence for God…But we just haven’t discovered it yet! Give me a hundred years, and I promise that there will be a lot of evidence for theism!’” Of course, I told the student that if I had made such an “argument,” the audience would have (rightly) laughed me off of the stage!

We cannot base our rational conclusions on what could be discovered in the future, but based on what has been discovered. Of course, atheists see no problem appealing to scientific evidence to prove the non-existence of God. Why can’t theists appeal to current scientific evidence in favor of his existence? Atheist Bradley Monton concurs, when he writes, “Just because gaps in the past were filled in with further naturalistic scientific investigation, it doesn’t follow that every gap in the future will be similarly filled… To see this, consider an analogous argument. If one looks at the history of science, one sees that all scientific theories before the ones that we currently favor have been shown to be false. Does it follow that the scientific theories we currently favor will be shown to be false too?”[7]

Heads “I win” and tails “you lose”

As a child, my father would play a game with me to see if I had to do my chores. He would flip a coin and say, “If it lands on heads, then I win… But if it lands on tails, then you lose.” It shouldn’t be a surprise to discover that this was a “no win” scenario. With the rules of the game set up against me, I didn’t stand a chance.