What is "God of the Gaps" and why does it fail everytime?

Question

Hi, I'm an agnostic not trying to convert anyone just helping building yahoo's database of question and answers.

So for those who might not know, What is the "God of the Gaps"; also, why is it that "God of the Gaps" isn't successful in converting people to theism.

Thanks

Answer 1

The "God of the gaps" is the fundie's cop-out when they don't have an answer. It is laziness to attribute everything they can't explain to "god", instead of doing proper research and discovery through science.

Answer 2

Yes the first person and wikipedia are correct that God of the Gaps is the theistic response to the gaps in scientific knowledge. It fails to convert me because the questions of why the sun always rises in the East and sets in the West, what causes disease, and other things like that were all left to "It's God's Will" or "God Did It." I think that as our knowledge as a people increase there will be fewer gaps and less room for God in them. I'm not saying every gap will be filled. I think there are just somethings that will always be a mystery. I hesitate to jump up and say "well we don't understand so it must be God's work" but who knows.

Answer 3

"God of Gaps" is where believers plug "God" into any question that science has yet to answer. Example would be, before we knew how stars were formed, believers just said "God did it" It fails because as we learn more about the natural world, there are fewer and fewer gaps in which God can fit.

Answer 4

There are big signs in London tube stations that say 'mind the gap'. That seems to be suitable warning for me here...

Actually I have no idea who the God of the Gaps is. Is it anything like the God of the CAPS LOCK? Because that God is quite common here on Y!A...

Answer 5

"She laughs at me and says issues like, oh, stunning, you're thanking god?" i might recommend anybody who's useful adequate to no longer worry and not be in AWE of 'the' invisible area chappie scam is nearer to seeing it for the superstitious nonsense that it extremely is. Why will not be able to Christians be hassle-free? Why can’t they simply say: "i comprehend my ideals are illogical, yet i've got been brainwashed into believing those issues my finished life." OR "i'm too in threat of stay in this international, without the wish that there is somebody observing over me, and that i could have self belief in an afterlife". OR "i'm too scared to even evaluate the possibility that there's no God, for worry of being punished by applying him". OR "the considered hell is so terrifying to me, that I could have self belief, and be good". ~

Answer 6

When I was in High School, a doctor had to go abroad to perform the first heart transplant. The fear that preceeded his attempt was immense, and world wide. It shattered the fragile faith of many. A small price to pay in my opinion. But the seeds to that fear was sown much earlier, in a book by a lady named Shelly. She wrote, 'Frankenstein'. The arguement has developed, and is now presented as 'right to life'. It may seem that science presents new arguments dayly, that challenge God's authority. But the real issues have always been with us, and God is always on the spititual offensive. Sometimes he even uses athiests as a tool...

Answer 7

The concept of the God of the gaps contrasts religious explanations of nature with those derived from science. It refers to a theistic position that 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.

"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.







Essentially, the "god of the gaps" argument is often used by creationists trying to fight the overwhelming evidence for evolution.

The problem is, that it portrays a god cowering in the shadows of mankind's knowledge, and a powerless god who is dying a slow death as mankind continues to progress.

Answer 8

Because people don't like holes.

Ask yourself if you like swiss cheese... do you not like it because of the holes? Well, some people don't like theism because there are holes in the system - people have faults and a people's religion has faults as well. Some people can't get over those holes and see the delicious substance beyond the holes. Some people have fallen through the holes, and that's why they hate it, some people just don't understand, or care, or want to understand. That's fine, just remember that CHURCH WOULD BE SO MUCH BETTER WITHOUT ALL OF THE PEOPLE.

Answer 9

The "God of the Gaps" is a phrase made up by men just like other phrases made up by men in their dark musings. God is everything Good and everything True and lays claim to everything at once including what science has explained.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_of_the_gaps