There used to be a time when people believed that the gods causes thunder. Or that a rainbow is a sign from god. Or that disease was the work of demons. Thanks to advances in our understanding, we have exorcised much of the world from such obsolete ways of thinking. We learned, for instance, that thunder is due to agitations in the air caused by the heat produced by lightning. And that a rainbow is caused by raindrops that acts like a prism that separates white light into the different bands of the spectrum. And that disease is caused by, among other things, miniscule germs that live all around us (and in us).
We have much to be thankful to our current state of knowledge. But just as we are marching forth into the future, people still stuck in the past are planting their feet in the ground and demarcating areas where our inquisitive spirits must not go. These are believers in a god-of-the-gaps. They revel in human ignorance. Why is that? It is because it is the only place where they can hide their god from the scrutiny of science.
They are those who believed in all of the above superstitions. Thor is the name of the god who creates thunder, while Yahweh is the bringer of the rainbow as a divine promise. It is also the bible that posits that disease is caused by demons, which are cured by the wonder worker Jesus by driving them out.
We have learned a lot about the big bang. We also know a lot about evolution. But we don’t know everything, nor do we claim otherwise. This admission of incompleteness is taken by true believers as an invitation to bring in their gods. But just as we increase in our knowledge of the world, the gaps are getting smaller. And once a gap has been filled, it’s time again for the tenant’s followers to look elsewhere for a hiding place. That is the nature of their god. A place-holder for our ignorance. Their god itself has no existence outside this. Nor can it, as it is nothing more than their own creation.