The “God of the Gaps” fallacy and the Koran
Examples of verses in which falling into the “God of the Gaps” fallacy is likely but not occurred
Rad/12
It is He Who doth show you the lightning, by way both of fear and of hope: It is
He Who doth raise up the clouds, heavy with (fertilizing) rain!
Lokman/10 He created the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; He set on the
earth mountains standing firm, lest it should shake with you; and He scattered through
it beasts of all kinds. We send down rain from the sky, and produce on the earth
every kind of noble creature, in pairs.
God said “I do” for the things which are necessity in these verses (underlined), however, these occurrences were not presented as evidence to the mind neither in these verses nor in the succeeding ones.
Verses of Explanation
In the verses we reviewed up to this point, the Koran presents some physical events as lesson / sign / evidence. As we have demonstrated in our analysis, none of these evidences stems from “necessity”. All these evidences provided by the Koran attributes to either a phenomenon of design or chaotic events.
Apart from these, there are some other verses in the Koran in which physical events are used again but the true “sign/evidence” is in the “wisdom” behind these occurrences or such events represent a different reality. The four verses given below are proper examples to them:
Rad/2 Allah is He Who raised the heavens without any pillars that ye can see; then
He established Himself on the Throne; He has subjected the sun and the moon!
Each one runs (its course) for a term appointed. He doth regulate all affairs, explaining
the signs in detail, that ye may believe
with certainty in the meeting with your Lord.
Yunus/5 It is He Who made the sun to be a shining glory and the moon to be a light
(of beauty), and measured out stages for it; that ye might know the number of years
and the count (of time). Nowise did Allah create this but in truth and righteousness.
(Thus) doth
He explain His Signs in detail, for
those who know.
Enam/97
It is He Who maketh the stars (as beacons) for you, that ye may guide yourselves, with their help, through the dark spaces of land and sea: We detail Our Signs for people who know.
Isra/12 We have made the Night and the Day as two (of Our) Signs: the Sign of the Night have
We made dark, while the Sign of the Day We have made bright; that ye may
seek bounty from your Lord, and that ye may know the number and count of the years:
all things have We explained in detail.
In all of these four verses, physical events are used and the wisdom that underlies them or those things they convey us in the name of God are given as “sign/evidence”. For example, the evidence/sign in the Rad/2 is the reality of “God regulates everything”; the evidence/sign in the Yunus/5 is the reality of “our capability to know reckoning and the number of years”; and the sign in the Enam/97 is the reality of “our ability to find direction by way of stars”.
Another interesting point is that in all of these types of verses it is communicated that God “explained the signs” which demonstrates that the signs included are not physical events itself but purpose/wisdom that underlie them.
Therefore, claiming that the God of the Gaps fallacy exists in these types of verses stands for solely voidness.