God of the Gaps
“Scientific discovery, is one where at any given moment, there's a frontier. And there tends to be an urge for people, especially religious people, to assert that across that boundary, into the unknown lies the handiwork of God. This shows up a lot. Newton even said it. He had his laws of gravity and motion and he was explaining the moon and the planets, he was there. He doesn't mention God for any of that. And then he gets to the limits of what his equations can calculate…That's where he invoked God.
And Ptolemy…he formulated the geocentric universe, with Earth in the middle. This is where we got epicycles and all this machinations of the heavens. But it was still a mystery to him. He looked up and uttered the following words…“when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch Earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.”
He didn't invoke Zeus to account for the rock that he's standing on or the air he's breathing. It was this point of mystery…This, over time, has been described by philosophers as the God of the gaps…If that's where you're going to put your God in this world, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
If that's how you're going to invoke God. If God is the mystery of the universe…we're tackling these mysteries one by one. If you're going to stay religious at the end of the conversation, God has to mean more to you than just where science has yet to tread. So to the person who says, "Maybe dark matter is God," if the only reason why you're saying it is because it's a mystery, then get ready to have that undone.”
Interview on Moyer and Company of Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. January 17, 2014.
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Is God merely, “an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance?” She is if we relegate her to existing in the gaps; spaces of mystery yet to be understood by modern science. Surely, as Tyson suggests, “God has to mean more to you than just where science has yet to tread.”
Q: What are your thoughts on this? What does God mean to you? Is God being “undone” by growing scientific understanding?
“Scientific discovery, is one where at any given moment, there's a frontier. And there tends to be an urge for people, especially religious people, to assert that across that boundary, into the unknown lies the handiwork of God. This shows up a lot. Newton even said it. He had his laws of gravity and motion and he was explaining the moon and the planets, he was there. He doesn't mention God for any of that. And then he gets to the limits of what his equations can calculate…That's where he invoked God.
And Ptolemy…he formulated the geocentric universe, with Earth in the middle. This is where we got epicycles and all this machinations of the heavens. But it was still a mystery to him. He looked up and uttered the following words…“when I trace at my pleasure the windings to and fro of the heavenly bodies, I no longer touch Earth with my feet. I stand in the presence of Zeus himself and take my fill of ambrosia.”
He didn't invoke Zeus to account for the rock that he's standing on or the air he's breathing. It was this point of mystery…This, over time, has been described by philosophers as the God of the gaps…If that's where you're going to put your God in this world, then God is an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance.
If that's how you're going to invoke God. If God is the mystery of the universe…we're tackling these mysteries one by one. If you're going to stay religious at the end of the conversation, God has to mean more to you than just where science has yet to tread. So to the person who says, "Maybe dark matter is God," if the only reason why you're saying it is because it's a mystery, then get ready to have that undone.”
Interview on Moyer and Company of Neil deGrasse Tyson, Astrophysicist and Director of the Hayden Planetarium at New York’s American Museum of Natural History. January 17, 2014.
*****************************************************************
Is God merely, “an ever-receding pocket of scientific ignorance?” She is if we relegate her to existing in the gaps; spaces of mystery yet to be understood by modern science. Surely, as Tyson suggests, “God has to mean more to you than just where science has yet to tread.”
Q: What are your thoughts on this? What does God mean to you? Is God being “undone” by growing scientific understanding?