Miracles, Intelligent Design, and God-Of-The-Gaps*
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Article Miracles, Intelligent Design, and God-of-the-Gaps Miracles, Intelligent Design, and God-of-the-Gaps* Both traditional Christian miracle claims and the newer project of “intelligent design” have been held to commit the “God-of-the-gaps” fallacy: that is, they depend on our ignorance of the material processes that produced them and invoke supernatural action to explain the unknown. By this argument, scientific research will eventually reduce the “gaps,” and hence the motive for believing in God. In reply, I argue that a proper treatment of this question requires careful definitions of such terms as “natural,” “supernatural,” “design,” and “gap.” An attentive consideration of the Christian scholastic metaphysic provides definitions of “supernatural” and “design” that give criteria for detecting such events without committing the God-of-the-gaps fallacy. We must distinguish between different kinds of “gaps”: those that are simply gaps in our knowledge, and those that are genuine gaps between the properties of the components and the complex structure we are considering. I shall outline t is a curi ous fact that both tradi tional biblical one), that will lead to the defi nition Christian mira cle claims and the con - of “mira cle” and provide a con text for dis - the Christian Item po rary pro ject of “intel li gent design” cussing “design.” This will allow us to say face simi lar objections. For example, both whether and when it is possi ble to make a scholastic may be ruled out a priori as incom pat i ble mira cle or design claim that is not liable to with the modern sci entific world view, or as the God-of-the-gaps objection, which then metaphysic …, outside the realm proper for sci entific pro - will give some basis for discuss ing how this nouncement; and both can be called “sci ence metaphysic might relate to natu ral theol ogy. that will lead stop pers” (i.e. they prevent further research). Both may be dismissed as exhibit ing a Definitions, Part 1: Nature and to the flawed view of God’s action in the world; or Miracle as involv ing their par tic i pants in the “God- To dis cuss our topic, first we need to define definition of-the-gaps” fal lacy; or as an improper use some terms: what is “ordinary” or “natu ral,” of “reason” to compel faith; or as incompat i - and what is a “mir a cle”? Straightaway we of “miracle” ble with the existence of evil. face dif fi culties, since there is no techni cal bib li cal dis cus sion of either of these notions. While I am far from claim ing that one That, of course, is hardly evidence that the and provide a entails the other, I find the common opposi - con cepts themselves are foreign to the Bible. tion to these two claims to be striking. In Rather than rely on etymol o gies1 or on the context for this brief paper, it is impossi ble to cover the var i ous def i ni tions of mir a cle that have been full range in any depth; so I shall focus offered (often for polemi cal purposes, and discussing on the problem of “God-of-the-gaps.” I shall often rep re sent ing var ied meta phys ics),2 out line the Chris tian scho las tic metaphysic I shall state the standard scholas tic meta- “design.” (which I claim accurately repre sents the physic of ordi nary and mirac ulous events, Jack Collins is professor of Old Testament at Covenant Theological Seminary in and cite a few bibli cal texts that clearly sup - St Louis, Missouri. His S.B. and S.M. are from MIT (Electrical Engineering), his port this position. 3 M.Div. from Faith Lutheran Seminary, and his Ph.D. from the University of Liverpool (Hebrew). He has been an engineer, church-planter, and now a teacher. Lutheran theo lo gian Hein rich Schmid gives His publications focus on the grammar of Hebrew and Greek; but he also has a rep re sen ta tive descrip tion of divine Prov i - received grants from the John Templeton Foundation and the Discovery Institute dence as hav ing three ele ments: (1) preser - for work in science and faith. He was Old Testament chairman for the English va tion, (2) con cur rence, and (3) gov er nance.4 Standard Version, and is the author of The God of Miracles: An Exegetical Examination of God’s Action in the World (Crossway, 2000 / InterVarsity, 1. Pres er va tion is the act of Divine Prov i - 2001). An ASA member since 1996, he and his wife have two children. His email dence whereby God sus tains all things address is: [email protected]. cre ated by Him, so that they continue in 22 Perspectives on Science and Christian Faith Jack Collins being with the proper ties implanted in their nature and It is inherent in this metaphysic that “mira cles” (better, the powers received in creation … Created things have “supernat u ral events”) are possi ble. Under what condi - no power of subsis tence in themselves … Therefore tions they may be expected is another question. Christian pres er va tion is also desig nated as con tin ued cre ation.5 theolo gians commonly add pro vi sos about them not being 2. Con cur rence, or the co-opera tion of God, is the act of capricious but related to God’s pursuit of relation ship with Divine Prov i dence whereby God, by a gen eral and human beings. These provi sos are quite appropri ate. At the immedi ate influence, propor tioned to the need and same time, Chris tian theism resists the notion that super- capac ity of every creature, graciously takes part with natu ral events are in some way unworthy of God. It is sec ond causes in their actions and effects.6 quite true that a doc trine of creation posits a cre ated world that has all its neces sary capaci ties built into it, need ing no 3. Gov ern ment is the act of Divine Provi dence by which tinker ing. But those capaci ties are the ones neces sary for God most excellently orders, regu lates, and directs the the world’s assigned pur pose: namely, of being the back- affairs and actions of creatures according to His own ground for the lives and choices of rational agents.14 wis dom, justice, and goodness, for the glory of His name and the welfare of men. … Definitions, Part 2: Design The Provi dence of God ordinarily employs sec ond How is “design” related to nature and provi dence? His- causes, and thus accom plishes its designs; but God is torically, mention of design has involved purpose. For by no means restricted to the use of those sec ond example, Aris totle’s term for it was heneka tou “on account causes, for he often exercises His Prov i dence without of something.” 15 Paley defined it as “the sev eral parts … regard to them, and operates thus contrary to what we framed and put together for a purpose.” 16 Thus the theis tic call the course of nature, and hence arises the dif ference design argument is also called the “tele o logi cal argument.” 17 between ordi nary and extraor di nary prov i dence.7 But, as Paley himself acknowledged, there are differ ent There is no doubt here that both ordinary and extraor- kinds of design, rang ing from “a prin ci ple of order” to spe - di nary (mirac u lous) prov i dence are expres sions of God’s cific instances of “con triv ance.” Hence, we need a more active power: it is never correct to refer to the mirac ulous as care ful def i ni tion. We may dis tin guish two dif fer ent kinds having God more “directly” or “immedi ately” involved. of design:18 However, the mode of that expression of power is differ - design-prop er ties results in the produc tion of a material with ent, and, at least in princi ple, some of those differ ences are proper ties that will serve some pur pose. detect able by human observers. 8 God’s activ ity in ordinary provi dence is not physi cally detect able, since it is not part design-imposed results in the imposi tion of structure upon some object or col lec tion of objects for some purpose, of the order of the world we experi ence with our senses.9 where the struc ture and the purpose are not inherent in Some sample bib li cal texts show that this is a good in- the proper ties of the com ponents but make use of these fer ence.10 For exam ple, James 3:11–12 sup ports the idea of prop erties. “nat ural pow ers” by which a fig tree can not yield olives; Examples of design from everyday life include: steel Col. 1:17 and Heb. 1:3 speak of all things de pend ing on and plas tic (both design-prop er ties); a digi tal watch (combi - Christ’s ac tive power of uphold ing; Exod. 14:21 shows an na tion of design-prop er ties and design-imposed); and Stone- extraor di nary (mi racu lous) event that uses a means (the henge (design-imposed). Detec tion of design-prop er ties is east wind); and Luke 1:34–35 de scribe the mecha nism of a normally possi ble against a backgroun d of “non-designed” super na t u ral event (the concep tion of Je sus) as be ing due items, and thus a theis tic infer ence from the proper ties of to the special agency of the Holy Spirit.11 the natu ral world (e.g., the anthropic princi ple) is a weak This metaphysic allows us to see that it is more helpful one, since the proper ties of the whole are designed.