John Vashahi
2009-07-22
‘God of the Gaps’ – unfortunately this is how some people think these days about God Almighty who created earth and heaven
Scientists who talk about God first need to define what science is? Is the scientist qualified to talk about God? This is a very fundamental question, and Christians who enter into such a discussion should remember this point. I think many Christians enter this discussion from the wrong angle.
Let’s put it right: science is limited in their ability to talk on metaphysical subjects. These do not come within their sphere of knowledge or authority.
Why science is limited?
The great philosopher of science, Karl Popper, defined what science is and what science is not. “Karl Popper's philosophy of science uses modus tollens as the central method of disconfirming, or falsifying, scientific hypotheses. Scientists start with a current scientific theory and use the usual methods of deductive reasoning to derive specific conclusions, of which some are "predictions". Strictly deductive reasoning is "truth preserving", that is, it is such that if one starts out with "true" premises, one can only deduce "true" conclusions. Starting with a "theory" and deducing "predictions" can be stated in the form of a premise:
“If the theory is true, then the prediction is true”.
Popper shows that we cannot prove that a theory is true, but we can certainly show that a prediction is false[ii].”
“We cannot prove that a theory is true” mean s that we can not talk about any metaphysical subjects in science. Idea or believes are beyond ability of science to prove or disprove them. Popper also said Today's superstition could well become tomorrow's Science.
Scientists are not qualified to talk about anything which is not objective. Because God reveals himself in nature does not mean God is equal to nature.
Talking about God is simply not in the province of science. It is in province of philosophy to talk about God. As popper said about science as we do not know: we can only guess.
Positivism and a philosophy of science
For scientists to claim authority in the realm of God shows that the old 18th and 19th century positivism has become fashionable again. Positivists wrongly believed what some scientists believe today. They thought they could solve everything by science alone. This is very similar to the argument which communists used against the existence of God.
The subject of God comes within the area of philosophy; mixing this issue with science is very wrong.
The fact is that the foundation of science is very shaky and not as strong as most of the public may think. Science is full of exceptions to laws, and it is very rare that a law can be applied in all general cases without exception. As Stephen Hawking explains, "No matter how many times the results of experiments agree with some theory, you can never be sure that the next time the result will not contradict the theory[iii].
It is maybe against public acceptance of science but the fact is science is very limited. As popper said No matter how many instances of white swans we may have observed, this does not justify the conclusion that all swans are white.
Science has expiry dates
As a time passes and our scientific knowledge continues to grow, more contradictions emerge. Take the example of physic mechanics. For many centuries scientists thought it is a complete theory and could explain everything. Later it was discovered that it could not answer everything, and then quantum physics was born. Now we know quantum physics cannot explain everything. To what physicists call it theory of everything (TOE) still a long way or maybe never.
If theories were not eventually superseded and shown to be out-of-date we could never move forward. But this means that science is not qualified to talk about God.
Conclusion
For science to debate the existence of God is wrong in methodology and has a basic error. Talking about God is beyond the sphere of scientific understanding. Science is limited to objective examination.
[i] First God made heaven & earth. Genesis 1.1
[i] A Brief History of Time, p. 11, ISBN 0553380168.
[ii] Popper, Karl [1959]. The Logic of Scientific Discovery
And also
Popper, Karl 1963. Conjectures and Refutations: The Growth of Scientific Knowledge.
[iii] A Brief History of Time, p. 11, ISBN 0553380168.
