Wednesday, June 2, 2010

God of the Gaps

From my old Myspace blog From November 25th, 2008

About eight years ago I was very interested in how science and religion interact, and I was looking at science critically. I'm not at all critical of science, though obviously some people do use science wrongly to get desired results, or make conclusions from what they can see of science without proper evidence.

I was watching NOVA and they were talking about dark energy. The theory was that the big bang created this rapid expansion, and the laws of nature that we know would dictate that this expansion would slowly decrease in velocity, eventually stopping and falling back inward towards the beginning point. What goes up must come down, after all. The evidence shows that actually there is no sign of a decreasing velocity of expansion, and there is a little bit of evidence of an increase of velocity instead. This is explained by dark energy, which is the unknown force that is causing this. I thought to myself that, call it what you will, this is something that God is doing.

As I learn more, though, I understand that the idea that God's power is manifested in this dark energy is really a misunderstanding about what God does. Things become better understood through science every day. Science is simply a system of learning through evidence what is observed and how it works. Eventually, dark energy will be understood. Just like gravity, light, relativity, DNA, atoms, etc. Would this mean that it was not God after all?

We often think of God as doing everything that we do not understand, and nothing that we do understand. This is the God of the gaps. We know that two dogs mate, and the female is inseminated, and then the puppies are born. We think that, because we understand the process, it is not God's doing. But I think that these things are God's doing. If God created all things, didn't he create the puppies? Below are some verses that have informed my understanding.

D & C 59:21 And in nothing doth man offend God, or against none is his wrath kindled, save those who confess not his hand in all things, and obey not his commandments.

Mosiah 4:9 Believe in God; believe that he is, and that he created all things, both in heaven and earth; believe that he has all wisdom, and all power, both in heaven and in earth; believe that man doth not comprehend all the things which the Lord can comprehend.

John 1:3 All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made.

Moses 6:63 And behold, all things have their likeness, and all things are created and made to bear record of me, both things which are temporal, and things which are spiritual; things which are in the heavens above, and things which are on the earth, and things which are in the earth, and things which are under the earth, both above and beneath: all things bear record of me.

No comments: