Zahra Mesrizadeh - The God of the Gaps: Understanding Science Through the Lens of Religion and Politics

This book is not about hatred toward religious or political individuals. In this book there are many types of people; some of them are believers, and some of them are not. This book is a window into the universe with all its unknowns and is meant to encourage conversation about the unknown. This book is intended for all types of individuals with their unique perspectives on life. The stories and events of my personal life are based on a humans fragile memories and therefore may contain inaccuracy within the details.

The following name is pseudonym: John.

Death is the only consistent component of human life, yet everyone lives as though they are immortal. This ignorance, and its consequences, has always fascinated me. Most people are eager to believe that there is an afterlife, and it is impossible to just die as one of my friends said, feeding into humans egotistical nature. There is an obsession of being immortal among people. This might come down to our evolutionary trait to survive the obstacles of life, and it has been engraved into our existence to be emotionally and physically strong. The notion of death is usually associated with weakness, and who wants to be a weak person? This feeling, fear of uncertainty, masks the curiosity to live and thrive, to be humble and to learn. Knowing death is coming our way whether we accept it or not gives life an enriched purpose to be bold and free.

The idea that not knowing leads to mystical explanations is fascinating to me, as it shines a light on this shared fear of uncertainty among human beings. This emphasizes the brains flaw in how it creates meaning for our lack of knowledge. Religion is one of the constructs generated by humans to mask the lack of understanding of the world with a narrative of salvation. This book will cover the history of religion and its relation to human psychology and control of society. The unknown is immediately filled with God, as the term God of the Gaps was introduced for this phenomenon in the 1940s. There are unfortunate consequences in allocating forms of god to discoveries yet to be made. For instance, the curiosity and creativity of the human mind are jeopardized if not understanding something would translate into creating a god to fill the space. The language for understanding our environment and universe cannot evolve to cover every bit of unknown if we let life remain a mystery. The mystery of life should be a force that pushes our brains to fire up even more to find words and discoveries to explain the universe and beyond.

Neil Tyson asked, Where were we before we were born? In doing so, he brought attention to why no one ever bothers with nonexistence before birth. We cant rely on human experience to know the answer to this question; however, it inspires us to examine human blind spots. The truth in the union of egg and sperm for our start of existence is more digestible than a nonexistent afterlife. This is the limitation of thoughts upon human life experiences and its attraction to unknowns. As Homo sapiens, we are looking for purpose by making immature conclusions in the patterns we observe in life. Seeking purpose leads to the association of elements in nature to a specific source and the fact that someone (a god or an alien from afar) placed everything where they are rather than an evolutionary explanation of millions of years of growth. The understanding of elements of nature allows us to explore the millions of years of evolution to know, for instance, how trees migrate over time and more. The difference between seeking purpose and understanding the truth leads to ever-growing gaps for mystical explanations. The gap in our reality is immediately filled with divine power or conspiracy theories to justify what has happened to uspropagandas to push for a group of people who hold power in society.

Lawrence M. Krauss, A Universe from Nothing: Why There Is Something Rather Than Nothing

Lets get comfortable with the notion that I dont know, but I am eager to learn and be open-minded. Growing up I always had a curiosity about the universe and how it came to be. Every time I would question its creation, I would hear the same answer: God created it, and if you think about it too much you will lose your mind.

I did not want to lose my mind.

There are many other ways to explore nature without mentioning a creator. This crucial element in science was being left out for the students. The undone part of science that gets us into the lab early and keeps us there late, the thing that turns your crank, the very driving force of science, the exhilaration of the unknown, all this is missing from our classrooms. In short, we are failing to teach the ignorance, the most critical part of the whole operation. The ignorance here that Stuart Firestein mentions is the mere curiosity of scientists and their tumbling around to encounter the truth. This ignorance is powerful because it is far from being closed-minded. The ignorance is knowing the lack of knowledge and recognizing the gap in our understanding yet pushing for what will be there once the lights are on.

Eventually, I came to understand that society is not comfortable with the unknowns of the universe. Lack of knowledge intimidates people, sparking uncertainty. In a world of religious fetishism, assigning god to the undiscovered, I wonder,