God of the Gaps

Term used to describe many religionists who insist that God (or any other spiritual entity) is hiding just beyond what's been discovered by scientists. That is, in the gaps of scientists' understanding.

For example, suggesting that soul has free will, and pointing to Quantum Mechanics as a basis (because we have not been able to prove that Quantum Mechanics is deterministic yet) is an example of resorting to the God of the Gaps.

See also Scientist's God of the Gaps.

And indeed this concept has made for a lot of the friction between religionists and scientists. After all, with every new discovery, the gaps get smaller and thus God becomes less. So explaining the universe, just by using your senses and not saying one thing about God one way or another becomes blasphemous. It was easy enough when our gaps were so much bigger, but as the gaps started narrowing in the past few centuries, people become more zealous in defending those that remain.

The substructure of the universe regresses infinitely towards
smaller and smaller components. Behind atoms we find electrons,
and behind electrons quarks. Each layer unraveled reveals new
secrets, but also new mysteries.

-- Academician Prokhor Zakharov,
"For I Have Tasted The Fruit"
from the Alpha Centauri game

Therefore, I hold that the gaps are not getting smaller - quite the contrary. It is maybe possible to compare this to an ink blot - the more space it occupies, the longer its boundary is bound to be (OK, I know it depends on the shape, but that's a very different can of worms). In other words, there's always more new whys than questions answered.

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Disclaimer: I'm not making any statements about the (non)existence, or even the possibility of such, of God or any other entity in the gaps.