God Of Gaps?

One of the cornerstones of Atheism is the concept of “God of the Gaps”. They argue that humans crafted the idea of gods since they lack an understanding of the natural world. As per them, fear, misery, and anguish experienced by humans drove them to find sanctuary in temples while praying gave them a false sense of protection from the wrath of the non-existing gods. They believe that with time, humans' understanding of the heavens and earth grew and expanded exponentially, especially after the Renaissance. This all leads to the 21st century, where the High Priests of Atheism shun the idea of gods altogether as they claim that there is little to no space left for a deity to fill the gaps in understanding. 

But is this that simple really? Let me be clear, I am a big believer in science, and ideas like evolution and the Big Bang do fascinate me and it amazes me seeing the capacity of the human mind. But, throughout known human history, in every era, humans do believe that they have a comprehensive understanding of the world though the instruments and disciplines vary with eons. In ancient Mesopotamia, their scientists regarded the sky as a series of domes (usually three, but sometimes seven) covering the flat earth, and each dome was made of a different kind of precious stone. While, for ancient Egyptians, the universe was more rectangular and box-like. Greek scientists argued that the entire universe was part of a great sphere. This sphere was split into two sections, an outer celestial realm and an inner terrestrial one. At all times, they all believed these ideas to be true and they presented evidence as empirical as possible to support their claims. With the Copernican revolution, another era started in which there was nothing new other than humans now having different instruments at their disposal. We as a species now believe that the kind of advancements, we have achieved in the field of sciences have no match in our known history. But isn’t it true at the time of Sumerians, Greeks, or Egyptians? They all believed to be more advanced than their predecessors in various disciplines, so what changes Now that negates the idea of God? Is this just a display of hubris or more than that? I believe it has nothing to do with advances in science, rather the rise of Atheism is a socioeconomic phenomenon.

Biologically the human brain and its vast capacity is what distinguish us from other apes and other species. It evolves to be a high-maintenance organ that consumes almost 20% of all the energy produced by the body. With the dawn of the industrial age, the reliance on physical human energy declined gradually, and in contrast, the demand for brain energy rose. Again, like any other commodity, this brain energy was in limited supply and, therefore, must be harnessed and utilized to the best of its capacity. This demands the reduction of distractions which can otherwise create obstacles in generating productivity. Religion was a major distraction as it pushed humans to think about the Creator and practically all faiths commanded their followers to be compassionate and use one's energies not only for worldly gains but for spiritual elevation as well. So these religious ideologies go against the market demand, so on one side Communism with its autocratic ways, bluntly and openly negated religion and denounced it as a poison. But capitalist societies with their soft, democratic image follow a different path, a path of enlightenment. Capitalism, unlike communism, believed that a permanent change can only be achieved through processes that require time and perpetual effort. So, thus started the movement of Atheism, which first sowed the seeds of agnosticism and then fed it with mass media abomination of religions. Only over the last few decades has this movement started to bear fruit, especially in Europe where industrialization is on the decline and now relying heavily on brain power alone. 

So, attributing God just to be left in gaps is just a façade, created to hide what religions can truly offer to mankind which is elevating us from mere organic beings to spiritual entities capable of self-realization and realization of our Creator.