From the recording Agnostic Hymns / Secular Psalms
“God is in the Gaps” — a phrase from the US physicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson which speaks to the historical concession of territory previously claimed by theology and metaphysics to (a much more believable) science. As the scientific method uncovers more and more of the universe and its mysteries, the realm of theology recedes into corners. The concept of “God” is increasingly invoked only to “colour in” the gaps left unexplained by science. The middle eight hints at the ultimate premise of agnosticism. “The story still unfolds…but may never be (fully) told…”. As a species we may need to make peace with never fully knowing. (In contrast to religion, which, somewhat lazily tends to declare short-cuts to work: an all knowing God and revelation…lazy, because it means the believer is spared the exercise of grappling to understand the complex physics).
Lyrics
God is in the Gaps
The world it turns and turns again
And now it turns Copernican
How can we ever know for sure again?
The words of God ascribed to man?
Telescopes trained on outer space
Scour the stars and heavens
Catch a glimpse of God’s own face
In the firmament
God’s not
God’s not
On the map
God not in the maths
God’s not
God’s not
In the facts
God is in the gaps
The apple falls
On Newton’s head
And things
Start to look circumspect
Microscopes expose minutiae
There’s more to heaven and earth
Than meets the eye
Ideas of relativity
Curve space and time
Take us back to our origins
With a big bang
God’s not
God’s not
On the map
God’s not in the maths
God’s not
God’s not
In the facts
God is in the gaps
‘
Not everything is known
The story still unfolds
And we may never know the whole
Story to be told
God’s not
God’s not
On the map
God not in the maths
God’s not
God’s not
In the facts
God is in the gaps
Yeah, God is in the gaps!
Yeah, in the gaps!
There goes God with his Caran D’ache
Colouring in the gaps and cracks
There goes God with his felt-tip pens
Just filling in the spaces between
The known and unknown and all things
There goes God just colouring in