God did it
Overview
The phrase God did it summarizes a large number of answers offered by monotheistic religion (especially Christianity) as alternatives to scientific explanations. As an answer, it is both a fake explanation and a curiosity stopper.
Fake Explanation
The answer "God did it" does not explain anything, and only opens up more questions:
- How did God do it?
- How do we know (or why do we believe) that God did it?
- Why did God do it? (This question is typically answered with another fake explanation, "God works in mysterious ways."
- How does God work, anyway?
- How do we know that God didn't do it using methods (or leaving evidence) discoverable by science?
- Why do we believe that God did it if we have evidence of a more believable explanation?
Curiosity Stopper
The answer "God did it" stops curiosity because the obvious follow-up questions (see above) all fall into areas into which religion strongly discourages inquiry -- even if objective inquiry were possible, since no reliable method is known of detecting "God" (indeed, theists often use the idea that God is undetectable as a counter to arguments against the existence of God).
As an answer, it is equivalent to saying "that involves things which nobody was meant to understand" -- an idea sharply antithetical to curiosity and the spirit of scientific investigation.