In the debate over the existence of God there are only two positions. Either the secular, materialistic theory of reality is true or the theistic theory of reality is correct. The first demands a closed system: the physical universe is all there is. What you see (or hear, taste, touch and smell) is what you get. The material world operates according to the laws of physics and paranormal phenomena are no more than that: normal phenomena for which we do not yet have an explanation.
The theistic model is, on the other hand, open-ended. It allows for forces outside the system and independent of the system that have the power to interfere with and influence the apparently closed material cosmos. To put it in more conventional terms, the atheistic, materialistic model cannot allow for miracles. The theistic model can.
