Tuesday, August 21, 2007

The "God-of-the-Gaps" argument

Their argument:
Often when phenomenon cannot explained, such abnormalities are often associated with the divine intervention of a transcendent being (or beings?).

The Atheist Argument:
First, when patients of religious faith find out that their disease or injury had been healed quite unexpectedly, they assume that this is due to God. They believe that all things that all things that come from God are always good, and they therefore come to belief that their medically unexpected recovery was by God. However, a fundamental flaw is being committed here. These patients assume that doctors know all there is to all viruses and bacteria- meaning they assume that all possible knowledge about the effects of viral or bacterial infections has already been acquired. With this fallacious assumption, and when told by the doctor that the disease, injury or any other related has 'unexpectedly cured itself', patients then assume such a recovery is God's doing. The fact, however, is that scientists, let alone doctors, have not acquired all knowledge. Medical research is continuing on till this very day, current knowledge is being continuously re-validated, and newer research projects are being created every day. With the exponential growth in research projects, not many doctors have the time to review each report, let alone have all the knowledge that pertains to viral or bacterial infections. This reasoning also applies to natural phenomenon, wherein some aspects of the universe remain elusive, but this sense of unknowing is not due to the complete lack of natural evidence to proof and reveal the natural mechanisms that result in the phenomenon, but rather to ignorance – meaning that insufficient research has been occurring regarding the experimentation and observation of the phenomenon of interest. In other words, the “God-of-the-Gaps” argument is an argument from ignorance – a logical fallacy.

No comments: