Energy conservation law

Alvin Plantinga addresses the workings of natural laws in a closed versus an open universe. He points out that the conservation laws derived from Newton’s laws are stated for closed or isolated systems. In closed systems there would be nothing to prevent God from changing the velocity or direction of a (quasi)particle, but if he did so energy would not be conserved. Moreover, it would not be a truly closed system, and the law of conservation of energy would not apply. He states that classical science does not claim that the universe is causally closed. His statement is entirely consistent with special divine action in the world. Just as God, who is immaterial and Spirit, can act in the physical universe, so too can the immaterial minds of human beings. There is no objection to special divine action or for human free action, dualistically conceived.

Stan Lennard