Reverse God-of-the-Gaps

In his 2006 lecture, "The Origin of the Universe," cosmologist and physicist Stephen Hawking discusses the history of scientific views of the origins of the universe.  Until the 1920s, scientists generally accepted Aristotle's philosophical argument that the universe is eternal and without a moment of creation based on the premise that things eternal are superior to things created.  The findings of astronomy and physics, however, forced scientists to begin to change their minds, and in 1965 they obtained conclusive proof that the universe was created with the discovery of "a faint background of microwaves throughout space."

Hawking's larger conclusion is that these microwaves form a map of the sky.  He writes, "So look well at the map of the microwave sky.  It is the blue print for the structure in the universe.  We are the product of quantum fluctuations in the very early universe. "  Then, tongue in cheek, he continues, "God really does play dice."

That is to say, "God" isn't really in control of the ongoing process of creation but, rather, like a gambler rolled the dice and our present universe is what came up. Hawking has been quoted in a more recent news posting as saying, “Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.  Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.  It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going.”  Creation is a spontaneous event.  Once it happened random forces were at work.  We don't need God to explain any of this.

Let's see: science by definition excludes supernatural explanations of natural phenomena.  Hawking, as a scientist, discerns entirely natural explanations for the origin of the universe.  He sees no scientific reason for God to have created the universe and therefore God is not the creator of the universe.  He does not see, in other words, what the blinders of his discipline preclude him from seeing and therefore what he does not see does not exist.  This is nothing more than reverse God-of-the-gaps thinking.  Whereas believers have often asserted the presence of God in the gaps where science has not yet made discoveries, here we have a scientist asserting the absence of God because he doesn't see God using the cognitive tools of science, which by definition exclude God from the scientific equation to start with.  Science creates a God-gap and then scientists assert that since they don't see God therefore they don't need God to explain the natural phenomena they study.

It is understandable that large majorities of scientists reject religion, but one wishes they would just leave theology alone altogether.  Not believing in God, they make really lousy theologians.  Of course they don't see God's hand in the origin of the universe.  As scientists they can't.  As people of faith, we do.  And, actually, we are thankful for the findings of science because they only further substantiate how incredibly awe-inspiring God's creation is.  But, come on, guys (& gals), you do your science thing and let us do our theology thing.  The problem is, of course, that some scientists are engaged in a war with fundamentalist religionists and feel a need to lob their bombshells into theological territory.  All they produce for their trouble, however, is theological gibberish.