“God of the Gaps”

What we know about the world is constantly changing: today’s accepted “facts” are tomorrow’s disproven theories. Some people place their faith in science to fill in the “gaps” in scientific “knowledge” which they identify as the Christians’ last resting place for their labelled “God of the Gaps”.

I believe the gaps do belong to God. So does everything else. Everything was His before time began, and certainly before he began to reveal His truth to us, whether that be through His Word, His Spirit, or the investigative techniques he created and inspired our enquiring minds to discover and use.

God and science are not mutually incompatible; science belongs to God as much as everything else. Francis Collins puts it better, and with greater authority, than I could hope to:

“Will we turn our backs on science because it is perceived as a threat to God, abandoning all the promise of advancing our understanding of nature and applying that to the alleviation of suffering and the betterment of humankind? Alternatively, will we turn our backs on faith, concluding that science has rendered the spiritual life no longer necessary, and that traditional religious symbols can now be replaced by engravings of the double helix on our alters?

Both of these choices are profoundly dangerous. Both deny truth. Both will diminish the nobility of humankind. Both will be devastating to our future. And both are unnecessary. The God of the Bible is also the God of the genome. He can be worshipped in the cathedral or in the laboratory. His creation is majestic, awesome, intricate and beautiful – and it cannot be at war with itself. Only we imperfect humans can start such battles. And only we can end them.”
― Francis S. Collins, The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief

“Faith and reason are not, as many seem to be arguing today, mutually exclusive. They never have been. The letter to the Hebrews in the New Testament defines faith as ‘the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of the things not seen.”
― Francis S. Collins, Belief: Readings on the Reason for Faith

As a mere enthusiast, I enjoy science. Let us celebrate the scientific discoveries God has revealed to us, and acknowledge that they can barely begin to fully reflect the glory of Him and His creation.

Waterfall

The mightiest waterfall,
Flowing floods
Of fresh living water;
It flows unseen,
Beneath the surface,
Unerring,
Through the oceans;

No eye has seen,
No ear has heard
Its waters rushing
From deep unto deep,
Bringing refreshment,
Nourishment,
Feeding new life.

It fuels the currents
Of the seas;
Its torrents
Bring purity
To the depths,
And crystal clarity,
Banishing the murk.

‘Deep calls to deep
in the roar of your waterfalls;
all your waves and breakers
have swept over me.’
– Psalm 42:7

Until you see one, it’s hard to imagine the size and power of the world’s most impressive waterfalls. Six million cubic feet of water—enough to fill more than sixty Olympic-sized swimming pools—goes over Niagara Falls, between New York and Canada, every minute. That’s enough to produce four million kilowatts of electricity. But what if no one ever saw it, because it’s miles beneath the North Atlantic Ocean?

Cold water is denser than hot water (its molecules are bouncing around less, so they need less space), so it tends to sink. When cold-water basins pour into slightly warmer ones, their water plunges straight down, just like at Niagara—only slightly slower, much more quietly and almost invisibly, since it all happens underwater.

The world’s largest underwater waterfall, flows down the western side of the Denmark Strait, known as the Denmark Strait cataract.

The amazing thing about the Denmark Strait cataract is that it dwarfs anything you’d see above the waves. Its water drops almost 11,500 feet, more than three times the height of Angel Falls in Venezuela, normally considered Earth’s tallest waterfall. And the amount of water it carries is estimated at 175 million cubic feet of water per second. That’s equivalent to almost two thousand Niagaras at their peak flow.