The “God of the Gaps” fallacy and the Koran


Verses in which falling into the “God of the Gaps” fallacy is likely but not occurred

Movement of Celestial bodies

Enbiya-33 It is He Who created the Night and the Day, and the sun and the moon: all (the celestial bodies) swim along, each in its rounded course.

Lokman-29 Seest thou not that Allah merges Night into Day and he merges Day into Night; that He has subjected the sun, and the moon (to His Law), each running its course for a term appointed; and that Allah is well-acquainted with all that ye do?

Yasin-38 And the Sun runs unto a resting place: that is the decree of (Him), the Exalted in Might, the All-Knowing.

Yasin-40 It is not permitted to the Sun to catch up the Moon, nor can the Night outstrip the Day: each (just) swims along in (its own) orbit (according to Law).

In these verses, movements of the sun and moon are implied and denoted “They are subjected (to command) by the God”.

However, what is amazing here is that these movements of the sun and moon are not presented to the mind as evidence through denoting that “God does them”... When it is taken into consideration that people in the Medieval Europe thought that celestial bodies move upon angels’ push and adopted the existence of God based on such thought, the importance of not falling into such a mistake in the Koran can be better understood.

Zumer/21

Zumer-21 Seest thou not that Allah sends down water from the sky, and leads it through springs in the earth? Then He causes to grow, therewith, produce of various colors: then it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then He makes it dry up and crumble away. Truly, in this, is a Message of remembrance to men of understanding.


This verse needs a special analysis. The pharase “He causes to grow, therewith, produce of various colors” is clearly a design argument. The verse goes on as “and leads it through springs in the earth”. Is the build up of the underground water resources a necessity? One quotation of a text that I found on the internet about the underground water reservoirs says ”In order to collect underground water resources it is very important to give water the chance to penetrate beneath the surface by means of cracks and similar openings in the upper levels of soil. Exactly here there is another miracle of creation to be witnessed because the upper surface of soil constitutes of such a kind of sandy layers so that water can easily penetrate below the surface into the deep until it hits another kind of soil which is argillaceous soil. This type of soil serves as a boundary to water and prevents it from diffusing further to the ground and enabling it to collect.” As seen sandy soil and argil have great importance to the underground water reservoirs. According to Wikipedia: “Sand is a granular material made up of fine rock particles most commonly quartz. Sand is a naturally occurring, finely divided rock, comprising particles or granules ranging in size up to 2 millimeters.” Its most important element is silicon and no one can say that having the element silicon on earth is a necessity. You can trust to this comment. I have just remembered the following verse of Koran:

Hadid/25 We sent aforetime our messengers with Clear Signs and sent down with them the Book and the Balance (of Right and Wrong), that men may stand forth in justice; and We sent down Iron, in which is great might, as well as many benefits for mankind, that Allah may test who it is that will help, Unseen, Him and His messengers: For Allah is Full of Strength, Exalted in Might.


The verse continues as “then it withers; thou wilt see it grow yellow; then He makes it dry up and crumble away”. Drying up and dying of plants is a result of a design. In order to clarify the design lets look at this quote from the encyclopedia Britannica: “In summer, plants make and store food in their roots, stems, or seeds. In winter, they rest. Plants pass the winter in various ways. Annuals flower in the same season that they are planted. Then, transferring all their reserve food to their seeds, the plants wither and die”. Meaning that, they die because they are designed to transfer their reserve food to their seeds. This explains the phrase “then He makes it dry up and crumble away”. It is again an argument from design. But more interesting is that the yellowing, withering part is left as a necessity in the verse. Withering of plants during their death as a result of these transfer process is a necessity (according to the Second Law of Thermodynamics). The verse also left this as it is. In this verse, they are emphasized in a fine expression that both death of plant is a design and “decomposition” during this death has an aspect of law.

In short, the verse Zumer/21 is a miracle itself!

Kaf/6-8

6- Do they not look at the sky above them?- How We have made it and adorned it, and there are no flaws in it?
7- And the earth- We have spread it out, and set thereon mountains standing firm, and produced therein every kind of beautiful growth (in pairs)-
8- For an insight and a reminder to every servant turning (to Allah).


“The fact that there is no flaws in it” which is expressed within the verse is a necessity. Within the verse this phrase is not referred to God and is used solely on its own. But the making and adornment of the skies is definitely referred to God. Actually the making of the skies and “adornment” (the term used for the stars) of the sky is strongly bound to the parameters during the creation of the universe. For example a slight difference in gravity constant or the masses of electrons or protons would make it impossible today for us to talk about stars. Scientists call this “the fine tuning of the universe” and science could not yet prove that these specific parameters were as they were because of necessity.

M. H. Shakir’s translation of Kaf/6 is also very interesting: Kaf/6 (M.H. Shakir) Do they not then look up to heaven above them how We have made it and adorned it and it has no gaps?

Well, no more comment! (PS: This is the solely one place in his translation of Koran that the word “gap” is used – In Yusuf Ali’s translation the word “gap” never occurs.)