(Update: God of the gaps is the idea that faith in God exists to fill in the gaps of our understanding of the universe. A trite view of a retreating God somehow intimidated by the progress of scientific knowledge).
No one who actually has faith has faith on the basis of a God of the gaps. People do not hold faith in order to answer a question of origins or to fill in some cosmological gap. People come to faith in response to a moral and spiritual sense of life. Others seek God to resolve a real life trial or to solve the problem of a character defect. People find resolution to a life problem and experience assistance from God. People who are arguing with this "God of the gaps faith" are arguing without any real living proponent of this position. This is a classic straw man.
I remember when I was in school anthropologists sometimes held a view of religion as a primitive type of science, but I do not believe that any anthropologist worth his weight in salt still maintains such a patronizing view of religion. It is strange that some in the scientific community still hold such an archaic view of faith as if our faith could be threatened because physics discovers that the universe could be created without God. People with relationship with God know that the universe exists that we might have relationship with God. My physicality exists as a means to enjoy God. How physics got us here is not relevant. Hawking doesn't understand the phenomenology of religion. This phenomenon will remain because God will continue to invade human consciousness.
Other Articles (Headline News) (The Archbishop of Canterbury's Response).
2 comments:
So you are saying that all those Christians who want creationism in the text books, and slander evolution are non existent all of a sudden?. You might not believe in the god of the gaps, but of course, a lot of people out there do, a lot more than you think of, not only in america.
If god isn't the god of the gaps that explains phenomena that science cant' yet, if relition is now purely spiritual and has no interest in explaning things, then, whats the difference between god and an imaginary friend that cheers you up when you are feeling blue?.
Nigma,
I will write a second article, but in short the term God of the gaps came from Christians pastors and theologians telling christians that this concept of God is a very immature concept of God.
As for the creationists that use it, I am saying that they are misguided. I believe scientist is far better at science than half baked theologians / half baked scientists.
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