When Can Science Say It Doesn't Need God?

In a post on a Facebook discussion forum, a commenter wrote: "All I know is that there is no place for God in any scientific theory." The response I gave him is provided here:

“You know this much, but you do not know the whole story. Scientists do not pay much attention to philosophers, but they highly respect one philosopher, and that philosopher is Hume. He stated that we cannot leap to the conclusion, based on a limited number of past observations, that what happened in the past will continue to happen in the future. No matter how many times we have seen 'A' happen in the past, we have always seen 'B' follow immediately after 'A'. From this, we cannot draw the conclusion that every time we see 'A' happen in the future, we will see 'B' follow 'A'. In the future, it could very well happen that 'A' is observed, but 'B' does not follow 'A'.

“You wrote that there is no place for God in any scientific theory. It is true that, until now, science has not needed God. However, you cannot use your current knowledge to prophesy that science will never need God in the future. You are not an astrologer or a fortune-teller that you can make such a prediction—or that even if you do make a prediction, it will turn out to be completely accurate.

“Only if science can one day explain everything from the origin of the universe to everything that has happened, is happening, and will happen in this universe, without bringing in an imaginary God, can science confidently claim that it has no need for God.

“However, if it is ultimately found that there remains a gap somewhere in the scientific explanation, and despite thousands of years of effort, that gap cannot be filled by any scientific explanation, then questions will begin to arise about whether what science has assumed as an axiom until now is actually true. Science assumes that it does not need to go outside of nature to explain the world. That very assumption of science will then be called into question.

“German scientist Sabine Hossenfelder wrote in one of her blog posts that it might take one thousand years to get answers to all of science's questions. It would be wise to wait until then.”