“Science of the Gaps” Arguments

What the theory of the Big Bang’s cause means for religion, philosophy, and Everyday Joes

Photo by NASA on Unsplash

There are mind-bending parallels among the scientific theory of the Big Bang’s cause, the religious concept of God the Creator, and the philosophy of how we know what we know.

Cosmology poses a danger for a religious person: falling into the “god of the gaps” argument. It’s tempting to point to the many things that scientists don’t know about our universe and then say, “See! God did that!” But not so fast. Science may eventually determine natural explanations for the unknown, leaving no room for a supernatural God. For that reason, I don’t find “god of the gaps” arguments to be very compelling.

But I’ve always been fascinated by how cosmologists create their own “science of the gaps” arguments. As long as there’s a little scientific veneer to the method of problem-solving, scientists have no trouble whatsoever arriving at answers like “just because” or “it just is” or “we can’t know.” In other words, they end up relying on faith.

What caused the Big Bang?

For instance, what caused the Big Bang? Physicists think in terms of particles moving in waves and interacting with each other. Naturally, some physicists hypothesize that…