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The God Hole

We seem to be programmed to search for an Answer in our lives. Since the earliest human cultures (that we know of), human beings have sought after an explanation for everything in their environment - the weather, the growth or failure of crops, health and sickness, the sun coming up in the morning.

For pre-scientific societies, this usually means turning to spirits or god(s). We saw that our actions had consequences, and therefore concluded that there must be actions unseen driving the consequences we saw, and god or gods filled that gap. The God Hole was filled, and human curiosity, at least for the majority, was satisfied.

But for some, that answer wasn't enough, and they kept searching. They looked for a better solution than the black box of God did it, immune to further dissection or understanding, and began to truly unravel the mysteries of the universe. Galileo rejected the theologically-derived notion that the universe must revolve around the earth, and created the roots of modern physics. Newton didn't settle for the metaphysical explanations of his time, and found mathematical answers to the movements of bodies in space. Darwin, unhappy with creationism as an answer to the diversity of species, developed the theory of evolution.

We are clearly driven to fill the God Hole by one means or another. If we refuse to accept the theological explanation, we are left with a gap in our understanding that may never be filled in a sense, we may never be truly satisfied. But maybe that hole, and our endless drive to fill it, is what makes the human race great. With that unfulfilled need always in front of us, we will always be driven to learn, to expand, to analyse, and thereby to develop a deeper and broader understanding of the universe.

Mark Hewitt is a writer, techie, foodie and philosopher. You can read more of his work at http://www.silverknife.co.uk


Tip for the day: The missing chapter from Ben Goldacre's book Bad Science has now been published here.

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I don't think there's a god

I don't think there's a god hole. There are gaps in knowledge: personal and collective. Isn't it only historical contingency that leads us to label this hole 'god'?

  • By latsot at 2009-04-15 14:51
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Agreed

I agree absolutely. I really used the term because A: It had a certain ring to it and B: Because historically that is what people have used to fill the gap (instead of real explanations). In fact, I'd go further and say that the name is apt because we created God or gods to fill the hole!

  • By Mark Hewitt at 2009-04-22 08:04
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the God Hole

. . . and the knowledge we acquire in striving to fill the "god Hole" may one day be the means of saving the human race from extinction.

What use is religious knowledge in the face of famine, disease, a meteor on a collision course or even, in the indescribably distant future, the need to evacuate the planet?

  • By quedula at 2009-04-15 10:43
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Well...

If you were very cynical, you might say that the use of religious knowledge in those situations is to keep the masses docile and unquestioning while their noble leaders sort everything out...but who's that cynical? :D

  • By Mark Hewitt at 2009-04-22 08:05
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we have a need for mythology, also a need for science.

Carl Jung said 'magic is the science of the jungle' and in our semi-enlightened world-state I think we confuse the two!

  • By goodfaith at 2009-04-15 14:48
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