Between the «God-of-the-gaps» and a «Theory of Everything»: A Theist Response to Scientific Limit Questions

Abstract

We more and more realize that even a TOE could not give a complete explanation of reality. To be sure, in principle, there are no gaps in the scientific account, which could be filled by theology. If theologians want to avoid any god-of-the-gaps they have to make sure that they do not conceive of God as working on the level of efficient causality. Nevertheless, there remains, even on a cognitive level, a fundamental «gulf» between the scientific description of the world and an overall account of reality as it is experienced in «the broader and richer setting of personal life», to use a phrase from Polkinghorne (1996: xi). This «gulf» has nothing to do with any kind of «gap» referred to in the god-of-the gaps. For a sufficient explanation of this broader setting of life, however, that «gulf» between science and «the rest of life» must be bridged. The need for crossing this gulf becomes apparent by the fact that scientists raise limit questions which science itself cannot answer.