This perspective has deeply permeated western culture and is foundational to most scientists.  Today even many Christian scientists are wary to speak in terms of a “God of the gaps” – and rightly so given the checkered history of superstition debunked by science.  But I am not so sure.  In fact, the God of the gaps has made a big comeback.  I call it the Revenge of God of the gaps!!

This God of the gaps idea reached its zenith in the 19^th century when it was widely held among scientists that we humans had figuring everything out about the world…at least the big stuff.  All that was left was “mop up duty” – let’s say the last 1% of all knowledge.   There was good reason for such optimism given the amazing discoveries of the era including:

• Laws of motion and gravity
• Vaccines
• Cells
• Electricity
• Germs
• Electromagnetism
• Radioactivity
• Anesthesia

The natural world was thought of as a machine  – operating according to defined laws in a fully deterministic fashion. Pierre Simon Laplace summed up the spirit of the age perfectly when upon presenting his book of all knowledge to Napolean was asked “But where is God in your system?” to which he famously replied…”I have no need for that hypothesis!”

As the 20^th century dawned, some cracks began to appear in the almost complete tower of all knowledge.  First, Einstein came along and upended our most basic intuitions about time and space.  Newton assumed a world of fixed space in three dimensions with time flowing at constant speed.  But Einstein proved that time and space are neither separate nor static, but intertwined and malleable.  Weird.

Then came quantum.  As we dove into the quantum world of the very small, things got even weirder.  Our normal conception of physical stuff dissolves into “probability waves.” (See Meow Wolf ). Particles are mysteriously entangled even at great distances and pop in and out of existence. (See quantum entanglement) In the quantum world there is a firewall to complete knowledge.  The best knowledge we can ever get is probability (Heisenburg Uncertainty Principle).

Chaos theory stirred the murky water even further when it was discovered that many physical systems (like the weather) are hopelessly unpredictable.  The metaphor of the world as a deterministic machine is crumbling.

Our amazing advances in cosmology have also added new frontiers of mystery.  We now postulate that most of the universe is made up of “dark matter” and “dark energy” which we know almost nothing about.

Mystery has come off the mat and delivered some knockout blows!   If our current knowledgebase were a cheese, it would be decidedly Swiss!!  The great paradox of our day is that while God is allowing us ever increasingly and powerful knowledge of His creation…we are also swimming in greater mystery. Man is to mystery as a fish is to water.

Thank you God for the gaps.

Toodling and Noodling, Stan

“The public has a distorted view of science because children are taught in school that science is a collection of firmly established truths. In fact, science is not a collection of truths, it’s a continuing exploration of mystery.”  Freeman Dyson

“As the island of knowledge grows, the surface that makes contact with mystery expands. When major theories are overturned, what we thought was certain knowledge gives way, and knowledge touches upon mystery differently. This newly uncovered mystery may be humbling and unsettling, but it is the cost of truth. Creative scientists, philosophers and poets thrive at this shoreline.” Mark Richardson “A Skeptics Sense of Wonder”