Does God Go Against The Laws of Nature?


Ernan McMullin, a physicist, philosopher, and Catholic priest in the Department of Philosophy at Notre Dame University, has given careful thought to the relation between religion and modern science. In the introduction to his book Evolution and Creation, he offers some advice he calls “valuable direction for the contemporary Christian”:



He bases this scenario on ideas expressed by the early church father Augustine. Augustine maintained that Genesis in the Bible refers to a process of instantaneous creation in which God implants “seed principles” in formless matter. These seed principles are not final created forms. Rather, they contain the potential to gradually manifest these forms.


These gradual evolutionary developments are simply the unfolding of Gods original plan, and they do not require any further “divine interventions” that would violate God’s natural laws. Thus McMullin is able to formulate an idea of evolutionary creation that agrees fully with modern science and “complements Christian belief.”2


In the Bhagavad-gita (9.8) Krishna says, “The whole cosmic order is under Me. Under My will it is automatically manifested again and again, and under My will it is annihilated at the end.” Here Krishna says that material nature (prakriti) is manifested automatically (avasham). Krishna also says (13.30), prakrityaiva ca karmani kriyamanani sarvashah. This means that material activities are in all respects carried out by material nature (prakriti). This also suggests that prakriti runs automatically, an idea given further support by the nearly identical statement (3.27) prakriteh kriyamanani gunaih karmani sarvashah. Krishna also says (13.20) that the transformations of matter and of living beings are both products of material nature.


One might further suggest that God never engages in any kind of “divine intervention,” for then He would break His own laws (and violate the conclusions of science). From McMullin’s observations, one might gather that we’d be wise to understand the Bhagavad-gita in this way. After all, if we think that God sometimes breaks the laws of nature, when does He do that? Certainly He doesn’t seem to do it during the scientific experiments that demonstrate the natural laws. If we think God breaks the laws of nature, He must do it when scientists aren’t looking.

This means we are trying to fit God into the gaps in our scientific knowledge. McMullin warns, “Making God a ‘God of the gaps’ is a risky business. Gap-closing is the business of science. To rest belief in God on the presence of gaps in the explanatory chain is to pit religion against science.”3

If we invoke a “God of the gaps,” then we are asking for embarrassment when science fills the gaps and shows that we are fools. To show the inevitable results of this kind of folly, McMullin cites a remark by Augustine:


We can rephrase this by asking, “How are people going to believe in the scriptures of Krishna consciousness if devotees tell them that these scriptures are full of statements contrary to modern science?” Augustine has raised a good point, and McMullin responds to it by calling him “the man of good sense.”5

But there might be a problem here. What if your scriptures really do make statements contrary to modern science? How far can you go in scriptural reinterpretation and reformulation? To see what I mean, let’s consider some further statements from the Bhagavad-gita.

First of all, is it valid to interpret prakriti as material nature in the sense that physical scientists understand this term? Krishna says, “Earth, water, fire, air, ether, mind, intelligence and false ego—all together these eight constitute My separated material energies.” (Bg. 7.4) Now modern science certainly accepts earth, water, fire, and air as forms of material energy, and ether might be so accepted if we were to identify it as Einstein’s curved space-time continuum. But modern physics makes no reference to mind, intelligence, and false ego as separate material energies.


So even if the Bhagavad-gita is saying that material phenomena run automatically by the laws of nature, we must recognize that the Gita’s laws of nature are quite different from modern physicists’ laws. If the Bhagavad-gita is right, then thinking is not just a product of brain action. Rather, it involves the action of a kind of energy that science doesn’t know about.



The Bhagavad-gita (13.23) defines the role of the Supersoul as follows: “In this body there is another, a transcendental enjoyer, who is the Lord, the supreme proprietor, who exists as the overseer and permitter, and who is known as the Supersoul.” The words overseer (upadrashta) and permitter (anumanta) indicate that the Supersoul is in charge of the activities of each person. This means that the Supersoul’s decisions determine the behavior of the person’s physical body.

It follows that the human body does not strictly follow the laws of physics. If it did, the Supersoul’s role as controller would be a mockery, because His decisions would always have to accord with a system of differential equations.


In the Bhagavad-gita (15.15) Krishna says, “I am seated in everyone’s heart, and from Me come remembrance, knowledge and forgetfulness.” Here one might conceivably argue that Krishna simply set matter in motion at the time of creation in such a way as to provide remembrance, knowledge, and forgetfulness for all the sentient beings who would later develop.

But this interpretation strains hard against Bhagavad- gita 10.10: “To those who are constantly devoted to serving Me with love, I give the understanding by which they can come to Me.” This indicates that Krishna gives personal attention to individuals.

Commenting on this verse, Srila Prabhupada writes that Krishna gives instructions from within so that one “may ultimately come to Him without difficulty.” Of course, when a person receives these instructions, the result is that the person’s behavior changes.

In other words, Krishna specifically reciprocates with each person in an observable way that cannot be accounted for by any impersonal system of physical laws. This conclusion is also supported by Bhagavad-gita 10.11: “To show them special mercy, I, dwelling in their hearts, destroy with the shining lamp of knowledge the darkness born of ignorance.”

McMullin raises the question, “If Nature is complete in its own order, if there are no barriers to the reach of science, does not belief in a Creator drop away as superfluous?”6 Many intelligent people may feel inclined to reply that if Nature truly is complete in its own order, then belief in the Creator as described in Bhagavad- gita ought to drop away.




  2. Ibid., p. 38.
  3. Ibid., p. 35.
  4. Ibid., p. 48.
  5. Ibid., p. 48.
  6. McMullin, Ernan, “The Impact of the Theory of Evolution on Western Religious Thought,” Synthesis of Science and Religion, Critical Essays and Dialogues, T.D. Singh and Ravi Gomatam, eds., San Francisco: Bhaktivedanta Institute, 1987, p. 82.