Our duty, as men and women, is to proceed as if the limits to our ability do not exist. We are collaborators in creation. – Teilhard de Chardin

The “God of the gaps” is a pejorative term for the argument that God’s existence explains phenomena that science cannot yet explain. That is, if science can’t explain something, it must be the work of supernatural power, or nowadays, alien power (alien of the gaps). For example, ancient peoples knew nothing about meteorology or physics, and therefore couldn’t explain lightning, so they attributed it to a god like Zeus or Thor. Today science knows that lightning is caused by the buildup and separation of electrical charges within storm clouds. The same reasoning is applied to the mystery of how huge stones forming Egyptian pyramids were quarried and moved over great distances. Since the answer remains unknown, it has become fashionable to attribute same to ancient aliens. Such are a measure of primitive human thinking, superstition, and ignorance indicative of unreflective minds in pre-noogenic times gone by. It asserts that a proposition is true simply because it has not been disproven.

A god of the gaps perspective relies on logical fallacies, gaps in human understanding and ignorance to make its case for the existence of God. The medical practice of bloodletting to cure disease assumed to be caused by “bad blood” (humors) argued along similar lines. The same fallacies occur during origin-of-life debates, because current science can’t determine with certainty how life began. Such restricts and limits divine activity to these “gaps.” It is more scientifically sound and theologically satisfactory to look for God’s actions as possible within natural process rather than apart from them, in much the same way that the meaning of a book transcends but is not independent of the paper and ink of which it is comprised, to say nothing of its author. Every spiritually illumined teacher throughout all ages has recognized that out of the depths of silence and infinite withinness come the joy, peace, and harmony of daily living.

Toward that end, substantively, the most important part of our synthesis work is finding the answer to the questions, What is God? Who is God? and Where is God? What is it that from time immemorial folk have sought and revered as the source and foundation of their being and unfoldment? Along evolutionary lines, and by the process of elimination we currently know what God is not. God is not singly male or female, not sectarian, or mythic, or mechanistic, or quantum, or separate from us, or a god of the gaps, or super-man sitting on a throne hurling thunderbolts, etc. Rather, over deep time it has become clearer that whatever God or Spirit is, in essence, it is the very substance of which the whole of creation is formed, manifests, consists, and holds together — the God-of-the-Whole, universal and eternal, beginning to end throughout the entire cosmos and evolutionary process. And of late, most arrows are pointing toward consciousness (or Spirit) as fundamental, confirming what mystics worldwide have realized for millennia. That is, one cannot get behind consciousness, the universe appearing in and as a variety of forms, manifest as individual being.

The greatest logical fallacy of them all is that there exists a “gap” between the invisible and visible worlds of spirit and matter, science and religion. Such was Teilhard’s spirit-science synthesis vision that glimpsed creation as a unified whole, which today can be scientifically explained and personally realized. The term “gap” is itself a fallacy and a projection of a split that exists only in human minds, a universal mortal belief in science and religion as siloed, two separate powers/disciplines created by human thought imposed on the unified field. That fallacy has obscured perception and distorted thought for millennia, blind to the Source-of-the-whole embedded within it like the Logos reveals, as leaven in bread. Instead, the whole has been divvied up into so many segments, ethnicities, disciplines, deities, and denominations as on a gridiron.

Unfolding over deep time, the created order has been seamlessly one and undivided from its inception, experienced as such only in unitive consciousness, beginning at the entry level stage. Over the ages, awakening to same has occurred in a relative minority of humans. The vast majority remain entrenched in religious beliefs and practices informed by separation consciousness (binary thinking) which has a vested interest in their continued divorce. In the most fundamental sense, the notion of “One” cannot be denominated like so much “loose change” for a dollar bill — so many nickels, dimes, and quarters (atoms-molecules-cells) save in lower-level human perception and thought. Ditto radial and tangential energy, classical and quantum physics, spirit and matter. Past a certain point dividing them reflects a lack of depth, wholeness, clarity in perception, and inclusivity in thought. Absolute certainty in the life of materialistic science, dogmatic religion, or spiritually un-awakened minds serve no one well, leaving it to the innovative, courageous, and clear-sighted to open up a third-way of seeing and thinking for those receptive to same. Being “third eye blind” is no misnomer. It refers to one’s vision being opaque to higher order seeing and thinking.

The Age of Scientism (scientific materialism) which elevates (deifies) reason, science, and an empirical-only understanding of the universe, dates back to the 17th century. Though myopic, this historical trend has long since served its purpose differentiating science as a legitimate body of knowledge separate from the control and censorship of superstition and dogmatic religion. In the process, science has established its well-earned credibility, domain, and lingo along the way, including in scientific cosmology and synthesis circles. But in the absence of the “rest of the story” hidden in the within of things, science overstates its case along empirically biased lines. Nowadays, in advocating for the empirical-only way of knowledge, scientists who deny more inclusive ways of understanding the universe are being left behind by recent discoveries revealed by their very own cohorts. Hence, the “failure to integrate” or thrive in whole-making endeavors is in part due to scientific thought stalled in 17th century models, while western religion still mires in the Middle Ages in its understanding of the whole, reluctant to embrace discoveries that science has long ago revealed as germane to its fundaments.

Over the last 125 years science has begun to unpack the mechanics of what theology once mythologized —the same reality viewed through different instruments (lenses) using different language to describe it: one empirical, the other contemplative; one invoking classical physics, the other quantum physics; one scientifically measuring the “without of things” (quanta), the other experiencing firsthand the “within of things” (qualia). Like heads and tails, both are paired opposites working in tandem, two sides of a single coin (singularity or dual monad) each incomplete without the other; and each collapsing (eclipsed) in awareness when the other lays claim to pride of place in conveying Big Story truths.

But there is another way. In the current physics-cosmology-consciousness dialogue something deeper is happening. The “gaps” have shifted, not disappeared. From Einstein’s relativity (1905) to quantum field theory and cosmogenesis, physics has peeled back layer after layer of material explanation, only to find: (a) energy and matter are interchangeable, (b) space and time are not absolute but dynamic, (c) observation effects outcomes, and (d) consciousness may very well play a central role in how reality manifests (see the authors last blog entry on Baking a Spirit-Science Layer Cake)

These discoveries haven’t closed the mystery, they’ve deepened it over time. The gaps have moved from mechanical to ontological and will continue to evolve from the noogenesis stage (self-reflective) to the christogenesis stage (deeper penetration) of cosmogenic development— pursuing questions about the very nature of existence, awareness, and causation. As the most dynamic and complex part of cosmogenic evolution, evolved humanity (Homo spiralis) must experience each stage going forward, yet their trajectory and meaning can only be understood in retrospect, looking backward from its current and/or most advanced stage in psychospiritual development.

All the metaphors that a synthesis quest needs for understanding the composition of the whole are found in nature and the cosmos that represent them. That is because physical and spiritual laws, inner and outer worlds reflect one another — as above so below, innermost and outermost. One only need look through them as a transparency to discover same. Studying nature and the cosmos via unitive consciousness in Christogenic mode (natural theology), allows seeing material and spiritual phenomena as seamlessly co-present and covalent on a continuum of vibrating frequencies. This elevated oneness in unitive consciousness further dissolves god of the gap thinking, makes noogenesis vestigial, and forever replaces separation consciousness (binary thinking) with an awareness of the interconnectivity of all things. Christogenesis (literally meaning “God-born” or “Spirit awakened”) creates the level of thought and perception that not only favors whole-making and synthesis in our time, but can result in an updated, more nuanced “God-of-the-whole”paradigm. (see illustrations at the top and below, and click onto video resource box for further details on the role of consciousness)

What is coming into sharper focus is a view of the universe as a conscious energy and information field. Where theology once spoke of Spirit, physics now speaks of fields, quantum potentials, or information. Where mysticism spoke of vibration, light, and Logos (the Word), physics now sees frequency, energy, and resonance as the underlying structure of reality.  Same phenomena, different language and experience of same, each complementing the other unless regressively viewed and separated.

Early last century physics began to describe in mathematical form (quanta) what spiritual traditions long intuited (qualia): that the Source of existence is not a distant deity intervening in a patchwork of gaps, but the continuous creative field in which everything arises, evolves, and seamlessly interconnects in wholes. And the two, quanta and qualia, fit together like hand and glove, modern science and ancient mystical wisdom traditions affirming each other in one integrated spirit-science paradigm.

Teilhard de Chardin, David Bohm, Federico Faggin, and others argue that God is not what explains what we don’t know, but what makes knowing and being possible at all. In that sense, (1) the “gaps” science explores are windows to the depth dimension  of the cosmos, linking outer worlds (astrophysics) and inner worlds (psycho-spiritual), (2) God is not the patch between equations, but the unifying field of meaning and consciousness that the equations only partially measure in surface and fragmentary form (quanta).

In Teilhard’s lingo, Christo-genesis occurs when consciousness becomes divinized or spiritualized, the result of experiencing a spiritual breakthrough in awareness. It’s the entry level stage of unitive consciousness that elevates thought and perception in the God-of-the-Whole, requisite for a modern reframing of cosmology (cosmotheology), and ultimately a complete spirit-science synthesis. The “God of the gaps” is evolving into the Field of fields, the cosmic consciousness that physics can now begin to measure as coordinated consciousness, energy, and information fields, affirming what mystics have always known as love or light. Spirituality is the higher-level physics  (Spirit-Physics) that humanity is just beginning to fathom in the evolution of its own complexity consciousness. Eventually, as per Teilhard’s future-looking vision, look for spirit-physics to become its own field of study, becoming more refined in proportion to the unfolding complexity of a new phylum of humanity, one marked by advanced moral refinement, technological advancement, and the peaceful reconciliation of its divided and warring ways.

Properly understood, Teilhard’s cosmogenesis model is not sectarian but universally unifying, if only because it is no longer incomplete, but grounded in a spirit-science (dual monad) paradigm (see the author’s DTN blog entry on Teilhard’s Mystical Bridge: The Geometric Heartbeat and Lifeblood of the Universe). And as per Teilhard’s synthesis vision defined, science and spirituality can begin to affirm each other as seamlessly co-present and covalent, so as to be inclusive of all created things, universally — an overlapping, generative energy-consciousness-information field, and the substance of all visible form. With Teilhard’s vision fulfilled, the age of nations, ethnicities, and religious sects and tribes can more thoroughly pass — in theory. Not so in practice, until it becomes consciously realized and recognized in greater number, reflected in human character and practiced in human conduct. To date, however, the harvest is plenteous but the laborers few, with the planet undergoing dangerously perilous imbalances at many levels. The age of nations will indeed pass, not in a manner that denies the existence of surface appearances and differences; only in a way that specifically defines and highlights the invisible common identity and ground of being in them all.

In the author’s previous blog entry on Cosmogenesis (Baking a Spirit-Science Layer Cake), the combined works of Teilhard, Nikola Tesla, Einstein, and Federico Faggin are mentioned as contributing key synthesis ingredients. On review, Einstein mapped the energy continuum mathematically (E=mc2). Tesla intuited the frequency and vibration as keys to universal structure and resonance. Teilhard envisioned Christogenesis, consciousness evolving through matter toward divinization. Faggin grounds all the above in consciousness as primary. And the Logos takes a final bow revealing Itself as present in them all via an evolutionary circuit– Alpha -> Omega -> Alpha, formless to form back to formless, beginning to end in a spectrum of one consolidating unified complexity field. This field exists in overlapping nesting hierarchies of vibration, staged as in a layered cake or Russian Doll. The nesting doll illustration images vertical layering, cross-sectioned below to depict same via Teilhard’s heart of matter (Spirit = Love = Light/Gravity) as its cohesive push-pull (radial/tangential) core, a mystery once hidden and now revealed as entrained in the center of things.

Along evolutionary lines, Teilhard would currently envision the best of the human species as in  transition to christogenic (spiritualization) mode, driven by globalization, complexity, digital/planetary interconnectivity, a rising interiorization (convergence/involution) of consciousness toward the spiritual, and pressure toward unity. Overall, however, it seems that a critical issue presently looms accompanying the heart of this cosmogenesis model. As it is currently unfolding, the snail-paced rate of evolution over deep time risks being overtaken by an extinction event (Earth’s Sixth Great Extinction), a population purging occurrence the result of a gathering storm consisting of global warming, overpopulation, pandemics, AI, resource scarcity, global instability, and/or the threat of nuclear annihilation. Time will tell how these converging tensions will play out in relation to Teilhard’s cosmotheology vision. Or for that matter, in contrast to what one western religious tradition’s holy book has laid out in its dispensational timeline for history.

And the author? He’s a light being and light worker here to help advance the process by telling another untold fragment of a cosmic story seen from its vanguard, humanity becoming more aware of itself, its origin, and identity in the God-of-the-Whole as Source, further bridging the gap between science, spirituality, and all that currently divides its troubled human species.

About the Author

Joseph C. Masterleo, LCSW-DCSW, is a clinical social worker in private practice in Syracuse NY, and Rockledge FL. His half-century of service in the mental health care field includes faith-based counseling and psychotherapy, with an emphasis on psycho-spiritual integration. His subspecialty involves developing a novel paradigm for the synthesis of science, religion, and psychology, identifying the energy and geometric patterns that connect the quantum world with space-time, inner and outer worlds. His model explains how spirit and matter can co-exist as two facets of one reality in a unified field, dissolving the walls of partition between previously siloed disciplines. Inspired by the writings of Thomas Merton (ecumenism), Teilhard de Chardin (synthesis), Thomas Berry (ecotheology), Nikola Telsa (electromagnetism), Richard Rohr (Cosmic Christ), Ilia Delio (christogenesis) and others, his objective is to tell a new, future-looking story for the Ecozoic Age, one that forms a connecting bridge between the biblical story of creation, modern science, and ancient cosmologies. His columns on these and related subjects have appeared on websites such as The Center for Christogenesis, Progressive Christianity, and in newsprint via The Goodnews Paper, the Syracuse Post Standard, and the Syracuse Sports Magazine, where he comments on sports as reflecting the best and worst of American character and culture. Further information about Joe and his Spirit-Science model can be found in his book, The Ambient Christ, the Untold Story of God in Science, Scripture, and Spirituality, listed on Amazon Books, Barnes & Noble, and on his website www.joeknowsgod.com