{"id":87109,"date":"2020-08-01T22:58:23","date_gmt":"2020-08-02T04:58:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=87109"},"modified":"2020-08-03T22:05:50","modified_gmt":"2020-08-04T04:05:50","slug":"on-invoking-the-gutzon-borglum-of-the-gaps","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2020\/08\/on-invoking-the-gutzon-borglum-of-the-gaps.html","title":{"rendered":"On Invoking the “Gutzon Borglum” of the Gaps"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"A<\/a>
Mount Rushmore National Memorial.\u00a0 \u00a0(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Humans always want to know \u201cwhy.\u201d \u00a0Especially children. \u00a0It seems that it\u2019s an inherent part of the human mind.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

At very young ages, kids ask why something is the way it is. \u00a0But when an adult answers the question with \u201cbecause x<\/em>,\u201d the child will ask \u201cBut why x<\/em>?\u201d \u00a0And if that adult says \u201cx<\/em> because y<\/em>,\u201d the child will ask \u201cBut how come y<\/em>?\u201d \u00a0And when the adult explains that \u201cy<\/em> because z<\/em>,\u201d the child will ask \u201cBut why z<\/em>?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Science answers why<\/em> questions. \u00a0Some of them, anyway. \u00a0It explains why hydrogen, conjoined with oxygen in a certain way, becomes water. \u00a0Other why<\/em> questions, though, it leaves untouched. \u00a0Is there a purpose to the cosmos? \u00a0Why does it exist? \u00a0Science has no answer for that question if purpose or intent is what is being sought.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Really, in a way, science\u2019s questions are mostly if not entirely\u00a0how<\/em> questions. \u00a0How<\/em> is water made from hydrogen and oxygen? \u00a0How<\/em> did stars come to be? \u00a0How<\/em> was the Grand Canyon formed? \u00a0How<\/em> did Darwin\u2019s finches diverge the way they have?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But any answer that emerges out of science will invariably suggest another question, and another, and another. Why do the planets move as they do? Because they follow Newton\u2019s law of universal gravitation. What is the gravitational constant in that formula? About 6.67408 \u00d7 10-11 m3 kg-1 s-2. \u00a0But why is\u00a0that<\/i>\u00a0the gravitational constant? \u00a0Why not some other figure?<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

One very simple (simplistic) view of this matter holds that, when a person gets to the point that she doesn\u2019t know the answer to such a question, she has just two options: \u00a0She can either say, \u201cI don\u2019t know\u201d (this is the admirable, open answer) or she can say, \u201cbecause God\u201d (which is plainly the stupid, inquiry-ending, curiosity-killing theistic answer). \u00a0All lines of questions, according to this very simple view, need to end in one of those two places.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

For many, God is the ultimate answer to all why questions\u2014the first cause of anything. \u00a0Others contend that to invoke God, ever, isn\u2019t really to answer the question at all. \u00a0Rather, it\u2019s to give up on scientific investigation.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Some are suggesting that the great astronomer Allan Sandage<\/a>, whom I cited in a previous post<\/a>, did precisely that \u2014 gave up on science and, even, on reason itself \u2014 when, awed by the sheer scope and magnitude and order of the cosmos, he became a committed Christian theist (while, it must be said, continuing to work under the guise of a highly respected astronomer).<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I would like to call attention to another case in which people commonly surrender their reason and their commitment to science: \u00a0Mount Rushmore.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Shallow thinkers often imagine that they have \u201cexplained\u201d Mount Rushmore by invoking the effects of a carbon-based biochemical system labeled Gutzon Borglum<\/em>. \u00a0Plainly, though, to invoke some sort of intelligent agency here isn\u2019t really to answer the question of Mount Rushmore at all. \u00a0Rather, it\u2019s to give up on scientific investigation. \u00a0Gutzon Borglum<\/em> needs to be explained on the basis of neural networks and electrochemical processes and, indeed, on the basis of a chain of physical events leading back to the primordial singularity of the Big Bang.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If, that is, \u201cBorglum\u201d even existed<\/em>. \u00a0After all, historiography isn\u2019t a science. \u00a0History is imprecise. \u00a0Eyewitnesses are often mistaken. \u00a0Many of them lie. \u00a0And photographs can easily be falsified. \u00a0(Plenty of money has been made from selling tickets and trinkets to gullible tourists at Mount Rushmore. \u00a0It\u2019s obvious where self-interest lies in this case.) \u00a0I strongly suspect that, when all is said and done, the four \u201cportraits\u201d on Mount Rushmore will be seen to be the product of undirected erosion by wind and water. \u00a0Do they look like the defunct carbon units called Washington, Jefferson, Lincoln, and Roosevelt? \u00a0Well, yes. \u00a0They seem to. \u00a0But in an infinite multiverse such as ours, it was and is literally inevitable that a world would exist, somewhere, in which seeming likenesses of four carbon units (out of many billions!) would be randomly created by natural processes.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It\u2019s flatly unscientific to imagine otherwise.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 Humans always want to know \u201cwhy.\u201d \u00a0Especially children. \u00a0It seems that it\u2019s an inherent part of the human mind. \u00a0 At very young ages, kids ask why something is the way it is. \u00a0But when an adult answers the question with \u201cbecause x,\u201d the child will ask \u201cBut why x?\u201d \u00a0And if that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[67,3934,1014,14264,7746,168,5928,2758,14285,14261,14273,6759,222,683,14267,255,14282,14276,243,117,401,14279,14270],"class_list":["post-87109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-abraham","tag-allan-sandage","tag-atheism","tag-borglum","tag-brain","tag-causation","tag-cause","tag-determinism","tag-deterministic","tag-gutzon","tag-jefferson","tag-lincoln","tag-materialism","tag-mind","tag-mount-rushmore","tag-naturalism","tag-reducionism","tag-roosevelt","tag-science","tag-scientism","tag-theism","tag-theodore","tag-washington"],"yoast_head":"\nOn Invoking the "Gutzon Borglum" of the Gaps<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    Humans always want to know \u201cwhy.\u201d \u00a0Especially children. \u00a0It seems 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