What I have done is to show that it is possible for the way the universe began to be determined by the laws of science. In that case, it would not be necessary to appeal to God to decide how the universe began. This doesn't prove that there is no God, only that God is not necessary. [Stephen W. Hawking, Der Spiegel, 1989]
Critics of the supernatural sometimes suggest that theists rely upon a "God of the Gaps" to explain that which is yet unexplainable. Accordingly, scientific discovery shrinks the gaps. In time, the need for God to bridge the gaps will disappear.
The idea that God should be rendered unnecessary because "science" has explained something flows from a view of science --or nature-- which is already materialistic. In contradistinction, a good theistic model does not posit God simply to explain the "unexplainable" (i.e. a God of the Gaps), but rather assumes God's engineering and support in all areas of nature, regardless of our present level of understanding --- or ignorance. The very laws of science are held "in God." We should no more expect laws of science without God, than we should expect miracles without God.
--
physicist Ard Louis: (BioLogos) Miracles and Science, Part 3 July 9, 2010 ((Well worth reading in whole, and for a different way of thinking abouut miracles.))
Nature is what God does
Miracles happen against a backdrop. In this context, it is illuminating to see how the Bible describes God’s action in the natural world. For example in Psalm 104, that great poem about nature, we read,
He makes springs pour water into the ravines, it flows between the mountains.
The first part of this verse refers to God’s direct action while the second part suggests that water flows through its own natural properties. Read the Psalm for yourself and notice how fluidly the point of view changes back and forth between what we might call the laws of nature and the direct action of God. Such dual descriptions can be found throughout the Bible. The New Testament is even more explicit:
The Son is the radiance of God's glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. (Hebrews 1:3)
and
He is before all things, and in him all things hold together (Col 1:17)
In other words, if God were to stop sustaining all things by his powerful word, the world would stop existing. That is why, when describing nature, the Bible so easily switches perspectives depending on whether it is emphasizing the regular behavior of natural phenomena, or their origin in God’s providential sustenance. So, as St. Augustine might say,
Nature is what [God] does.
Augustine doesn’t mean that nature is the same as God (pantheism), for, as he also argued, God operates outside of space and time. Nevertheless, and this is a very subtle point, a case can be made for ascribing some independent causal power to the laws of nature. On the other hand, there is no room within a robust biblical theism for the opposite deistic notion that God started the world and then left it to run on its own, completely independently, because descriptions of God’s continuous care for creation are found throughout Scripture:
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