There is no such thing as 'God of the Gaps'

There is no explanatory power of a deity. A deity only raises more questions, it answers none. Once you accept a supernatural explanation as the answer you no longer have a reliable methodology to determine true claims from false claims.

As far as why science works, we don't even know for sure that it works. It is our perception collectively as people that it works, but even then we cannot know for sure, because it does rely on observation and testing. Even if you can eliminate other variables, there are still variables you cannot logically eliminate, especially once you introduce the supernatural.

The supernatural is by definition outside of nature, so using nature to make claims on the supernatural is only a guess at best. And since there is no reliable methodology to experience the supernatural (many claim to do it, but their claims are often contradictory), then truth claims cannot be established.

"The very success of science in showing us how deeply orderly the natural world is provides a strong ground that there is an even deeper cause of that order"

This is a mix of argument from design, with a little circular reasoning on top.

Basically, it appears that the natural world operates on 'rules' someone had to make those rules, therefore God.

But that's still a god of the gaps argument. You can use whatever sugarcoating you want, but at the end of the day, you are still saying, I don't understand, therefore God.

The conclusion does not follow from the premise. The structure of the argument is invalid.

In order for the argument to be valid you must eliminate all other possibilities, natural or supernatural. Otherwise you have simply postulated a hypothesis based upon an unsubstantiated assertion.

/r/DebateAnAtheist Thread