>Whatever questions can be answered about space/time processes, there will
>always remain the ultimate mystery of the divine action which brings the
>universe into being, but which is itself being beyond the scope of our
>space-time categories. (Unless, of course, Stephen Hawking has figured this
>out.) Perhaps the applicable phrase is not "God of the Gaps", but " God of
>the Ontological Priority." Science has no claim on this.
Well said. When this becomes generally understood, Christians will no longer
be intimidated by the popular rhetoric of, "If there are no demonstrable gaps
in the developmental or functional economies of the universe, then what need
for a Creator?" Furthermore, Christians may then stop looking for gifts
withheld by God from the Creation as evidence for "room" in which divine
action may be fit. Instead, we will be in a position to rejoice in God's
creativity and generosity each time we find, with the aid of the natural
sciences, another of the marvelous gifts that God has GIVEN to (not withheld
from) the Creation.
Howard J. Van Till
Calvin College