Can't Keep Him Out<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.William\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Can't Keep Him Out\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.William\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Leithart\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@PLeithart\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Peter Leithart\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/\",\"name\":\"Can't Keep Him Out\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\"},\"description\":\"It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.William\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Can’t Keep Him Out\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/\",\"name\":\"Leithart\",\"description\":\"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d\",\"name\":\"Peter Leithart\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg\",\"caption\":\"Peter Leithart\"},\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Can't Keep Him Out","description":"It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.William","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Can't Keep Him Out","og_description":"It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.William","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/","og_site_name":"Leithart","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","article_published_time":"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","author":"Peter Leithart","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@PLeithart","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Peter Leithart","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/","name":"Can't Keep Him Out","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website"},"datePublished":"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","dateModified":"2015-04-08T00:00:00+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d"},"description":"It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.William","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Can’t Keep Him Out"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/","name":"Leithart","description":"My blog is a public notebook, featuring essays, notes, and explorations on Scripture, theology, literature, politics, culture.","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/6bb7113e4dd45fe26045622aa56f891d","name":"Peter Leithart","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/f1033df9cd7263d2e0408cf9ee92ee4d?s=96&d=identicon&r=pg","caption":"Peter Leithart"},"sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Leithart\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/PLeithart"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/author\/pleithart\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17156","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3021"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17156"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17156\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17156"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17156"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17156"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":17156,"date":"2015-04-08T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-04-08T00:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/leithart.level2d.com\/?p=1981"},"modified":"2015-04-08T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-04-08T00:00:00","slug":"cant-keep-him-out","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/leithart\/2015\/04\/cant-keep-him-out\/","title":{"rendered":"Can’t Keep Him Out"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\n<\/head>

It is widely believed that if the world is a causally closed system, then God cannot be involved in the world. He cannot introduce new information.<\/p>\n

William Dembski (Being As Communion<\/a>) disputes the conclusion. He concedes that \u201ccausal closure in a deterministic universe precludes what may be called substitutional intervention<\/em>. In other words, it precludes God (or any other nonmaterial being) from overriding the causal structure of the world by bringing about effects that would otherwise not have happened\u201d (117).<\/p>\n

Yet even this doesn\u2019t rule out the possibility that God has pre-arranged \u201cthe initial structure of the world so that desired material effects are achieved even if they appear extraordinary and bespeak a deity active in the particulars of the moment. All that is required is that God build in the necessary information from the start so that it gets expressed at appropriate times and places.\u201d He invokes Augustine\u2019s notion of \u201cseeds\u201d in nature \u201cthat come to fruition at appointed times and places\u201d and Charles Babbage\u2019s argument that \u201cGod implanted nature with computational programs that activate at the right time and place\u201d (117-8).<\/p>\n

This point has massive implications, not least for Christian apologetics: It means that \u201ca world open to direct, real-time divine intervention could be empirically indistinguishable from a causally closed world that operates by unbroken natural laws . . . provided that God, from the start, is able to precisely arrange the unfolding of events.\u201d It\u2019s an Enlightenment ruse to say \u201cwe must choose between a world whose causal structure is ruled by unbroken natural laws or a god who supernaturally intervenes in the world.\u201d This also means that \u201cGod can \u00a0. . . get information into the world without performing miracles. . . . even in a world whose material arrangement is entirely deterministic, God could so arrange its initial and boundary conditions that it unfolds precisely according to plan\u201d (119-20).<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"