Jesus said, “I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete” (John 15:11). And if He creates a rock so big that He can’t lift it, how can He be all powerful? Let’s place all the rocks that God can lift on the right side of our hypothetical space. and if God acts as the unstoppable force, he cannot create an immovable rock. This book is about how we can fight with doubts comes to mind about Allah and gives persuasive answers based on the concept of the deity in Islam. [12][13] This may mean that the complexity involved in rightly understanding omnipotence---contra all the logical details involved in misunderstanding it---is a function of the fact that omnipotence, like infinity, is perceived at all by contrasting reference to those complex and variable things, which it is not. More than twenty-seven million people participate in state and local government pension plans. (i) Either God can create a stone which He cannot lift, or He cannot create a stone which He cannot lift. In fact, the question Found insideSurely there are things God cannot do, right?” Can God create a rock so big he cannot lift it? Can an omnipotent God tell a lie? Can God create another ... According to … - Under the guidance and inspiration of ISKCON Founder-Acharya: His Divine Grace A.C. Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada and … Lewis, in his statement: So you can answer an illogical question by asking an illogical question back to the questioner and this way inshallah he will realize his mistake. God cannot create a rock too large for its creator to lift – you unfortunately can. This means that state and local governments are going to have to raise additional trillions in taxes (or shift those trillions away from schools, police, firemen, or other spending targets) to satisfy these obligations. God can’t make the color red the color black while it is still red. God does not need/want to forge a boulder that he cannot move, it is entirely pointless from my point of view. According to Scripture, God created the universe. Check your inbox or spam folder to confirm your subscription. Another way to view this cancellation effect is through a thought experiment. God can create any rock, regardless of its weight, that He can lift. Arguments For God's Existence Tell him all your problems, because God is our protection. That is one level of explanation. God can make a rock too big for us to lift! If He is omnipotent, then He can create a rock so big that He can’t pick it up. Apologetics Yes, God can create a rock that even he cannot lift. For this to be a valid question, God would need to be bound by the laws of gravity. 61. Which also means that God is not omnipotent, since he can not make a rock which he can not lift. Whether A or B is true, God’s powers are limited and he is not omnipotent. Many times when talking with non-believers, they will appeal to some sort of one-liner or meme to render their unbelief a more credible position than the reality of an omnipotent God. Either God can make a rock that He cannot lift, and is therefore limited in strength; or God cannot make such a rock, and is therefore limited because there is something He cannot do. They wonder, for example, whether God can create a spherical cube, or make a stone so massive that he cannot move it. Therefore I can see God creating a rock that would be unmovable by him or by anybody else. No matter how big He makes the rock, He can always move it! The paradox therefore is resolved. But rather it is to say that logical consistency is founded in the person of God himself.” Indeed. Sure, Saitama can chase Light down the streets in typical shounen style, but Light is way too smart and cunning to let a simpleton like Saitama catch him so easily. Can God create a rock which he cannot lift? Found inside – Page 45“If God can do all things, can He create a rock that He cannot lift?” “Yes, He can create a rock that He cannot lift.” “But doesn't that mean that He cannot ... The Nature of God explores a perennial problem in the philosophy of religion. October 2020 3 Answers3. In fact, there are many things God can’t do. Found inside – Page 92A particularly memorable puzzle is as follows: Can God create a rock that is so large that He cannot lift it? This is of course a paradox: a problem where ... This book is a story about just such a man: a man weak in his faith not demonstrating fruits worthy of being associated with a follower of Christ and His encounter with the Almighty that has forever changed His life. C.S Lewis once said “Nonsense is still nonsense even when we speak it about God.”You’re basically asking if a Being of unlimited power can produce something to limit Him. This is a very bad question to debate. This means that God, if He is omnipotent could: Create a square circle; Create a triangle with four sides; The ever-so-famous create a rock big enough He can't lift it. God can do anything. God is supposed to be omnipotent. True/False God is said to have created the world ex nihilo. The theory of God making a rock he cannot lift is suggesting that he can build gods larger than himself, thus a contradiction of his authoritative qualities. April 2018 Logical Consistency is a character trait of God like holiness, love, justice, etc. If God is all-powerful, can He create a rock so big that He can't lift it? © Copyright 2014 CrossExamined.org. God cannot perform logical absurdities; he cannot, for instance, make 1+1=3. For example, Titus 1:2 states that He cannot lie. This doesn’t count against his omnipotence anymore than the claim that God can’t make a square circle. If he is powerful enough to create a rock too heavy for himself to lift, it would follow that there is possibly a rock that is too heavy for him to lift, and therefore he would not be omnipotent. The article also relates C. S. Lewis' thoughts on the matter. Such a notion is meaningless, because it fails to acknowledge how God really is . By impossible, we mean things like creating things out of nothing, keeping people in a fire from burning, having a guy walk on water, or make a 90 year old woman get pregnant and give birth to a healthy son, and things like that. It’s like asking one infinite being to create another infinite being. For any sort of reference I do consider my self to be an atheist and I do not utilize the lack of any god's omnipotence ( I assume we are referring to the God of the three Abrahamic religions) to be justification for my philosophy. Found inside – Page 44But if God created such a rock that He could not lift, it would prove that He is not omnipotent. ... God cannot tempt someone, nor can God sin. (I.e. God always has this huge trust on us. Your free resource is on the way! Luke 19:37-40 ESV / 212 helpful votes Helpful Not Helpful. However, the point of God's power is that there is no power greater than His. Game over. September 2018 yes, god can create a rock that he can't lift and lift it accordingly. January 2018 If God is infinitely powerful than it’s impossible to create a rock so large He cannot lift it. An alternative meaning, however, is that a non-corporeal God cannot lift anything, but can raise it (a linguistic pedantry)—or to use the beliefs of Hindus (that there is one God, who can be manifest as several different beings) that whilst it is possible for God to do all things, it is not possible for all his incarnations to do them. September 2020 According to traditional Western theism, God is maximally great (or perfect), and therefore is omnipotent. And if He is not all powerful, then He isn't God, and therefore, God does not exist, or at least, God is not truly all powerful. Indeed. Heinrich Ignaz Franz von Biber. But a being of infinite power could create a rock of infinite size and infinite weight and still be able to move it. Consider this Scenario: God creates a rock, weighing X….and He can lift it. There was an error submitting your subscription. Since the idea of God creating a rock that is too heavy for him to lift involves a logical contradiction, it’s not subject to his omnipotence. Bible Contradictions Resolved You simply can't be asked to pick between the two. The only way this paradox could be applied to God is if he followed human logic. Holy, Holy, Father You are Holy. Can God Create A Rock So Heavy That He Cannot Lift It? As such, God could create a stone so heavy that, in one incarnation, he couldn't lift it, yet could do something that an incarnation that could lift the stone could not. A common response from Christian philosophers, such as Norman Geisler or Richard Swinburne is that the paradox assumes a wrong definition of omnipotence. That means he can make a rock so big that even he cannot lift it. Found insideHowever, one can argue logically that God is omnipotent, while saying that God cannot or would not create a rock that he cannot lift. and so to do those things would be to contradict His own morally perfect nature. People, trust God all the time. December 2018 The answer is that G‑d created in the world a rock so heavy He cannot lift it. All things that exist are part of one reality - God. “Truly I tell you, if you say to this mountain, “Be taken up and thrown into the sea”, and if you do not doubt in your heart, but believe that what you say will come to pass, it will be done for you.” [Mark 11:23] The question poses a logically impossible scenario, which just means the question is incoherent. The Christian Apologist seems to be in the same position. God can no more do evil then fire can cause things to freeze. He cannot do evil acts because God is sinless and holy (Psalm 23:6, Psalm 25:8; Psalm 34;8; 2 Corinthians 5:21, etc.) If he can make a rock but can't lift it, he is not all-powerful. If God can do all things, then why can’t He do this? A bachelor cannot forget his wife’s birthday because he is a bachelor; God cannot be overpowered by any creature because he … Instead, I tend to agree with C.S. But a being of infinite power could create a rock of infinite size and infinite weight and still be able to move it. Check your email. It’d be treason. Ethics If God can create a rock that God cannot lift, then there is a task which God could not perform, namely lifting the rock. Further, if the god erased all things that do exist in space and just created a small stone. Yesterday at 10:01 AM. He cannot make something that is … Pss.1 [1] Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful. But, if he couldn’t lift it, then he wouldn’t be all-powerful. We mean only what is logically possible (that is to say, things that are not contradictory concepts). November 2018 If He can make a rock so big that He can’t pick it up, then He isn’t omnipotent either. Titus 1:2 says that it’s impossible for God to lie. Same thing if he could chain himself to a rock so he couldn't move, he chooses not to do so. Therefore, God doesn’t exist. If God is infinitely powerful, then it is impossible for him to create a rock so large that he cannot lift it. My opinion in this topic is that God being omnipotent, he can create whatever he wants with specifications that he wants. For if God can do anything then that means he must be able to create a rock he can’t lift (even if it’s infinitely heavy). God, being omnipotent, could easily just be illogical rather than staying logical. Clearly this old paradox needs to retire as it is irrelevant to the existence or not of an all powerful god. The distinction is important. The question is meaningless when applied to God because an infinite God can infinitely move any infinitely big rock He makes. Psalm 71:3 Be my rock of refuge, to which I can always go; give the command to save me, for you are my rock and my fortress. Basically, all he has to do is lift his fingers, jot down Saitama’s name, and Saitama would be dead. Atheists 1 – Christians 0. October 2018 Likewise, God cannot make a being greater than himself because he is, by definition, the greatest possible being. In the same way if God is infinity and he creates a stone which is infinitely heavy then God can both, lift the stone and cannot lift the stone. March 2019 (3) If God cannot create a stone which He cannot lift, then He is That is an incorrect assessment of all-powerful. Through Christ, we can have eternal life with God (John 3:16). I know I do. Namely, create a rock which He can’t lift. On the other hand, if Jesus said no then he’d get in trouble with the Romans. Even if God’s power did allow him to do the logically impossible, at the very least, His nature would prevent Him from doing so. Each week we give away Free Lead Sheets and other resources just like these. God is a rational Being. An all powerful God can do or make anything, but it's meaningless to say that he can do or make a nothing. So what is the answer to the rock question? Jump to. (Mark 12:13-17, Luke 20:21-25). Found inside – Page 109Jesus was God manifest in the flesh: “And without controversy great is the ... question about the ability of God to create a rock that He cannot lift, ... Please always keep in your mind that God will never send you in a situation He thinks you cannot do. Play Sample How Majestic Is Your Name. Accessibility Help. But if we say that God is incapable of creating a rock that is too heavy to lift, it would follow that God cannot create something, and therefore is also not omnipotent. June 2018 God's changelessness does not undermine his omnipotence. Why the Gospel of Thomas isn’t in the Bible, 3 estrategias apologéticas que podemos observar en el Libro de los Hechos, Cinco cosas que debe tener la apologética cristiana. Person of Interest | with J. Warner Wallace, La clave para reducir el estrés en la toma de decisiones, Confronting Homosexuality in a Culture of Identity (Part 1), The Historical Reliability of the Gospels, I Still Don’t Have Enough Faith to Be an Atheist, Articles on Intelligent Design / Evolution. If god created the earth and could do just about anything to it, then how could he create something he couldn't?Besides, we don't know too much about his capabilities. Found inside – Page 3The Origins Puzzle Comes Together If the science surrounding origins were a puzzle, Darwin would have had fewer than 15% of the pieces to work with when he developed his theory of evolution. Why? God can not create a rock so heavy that He can not lift it. If God is infinitely powerful than it’s impossible to create a rock so large He cannot lift it. God does not have any limit to His power, but everything he created has a limit. Either way, our answer will affirm that God is not omnipotent, or so it seems. If God is all-powerful, (i.e., omnipotent) he could create a rock so heavy he couldn’t lift it. Found inside – Page 164The first move: Even an omnipotent God cannot do what is logically impossible; he cannot make a rock so big that he cannot lift it, he cannot make ... A logically contradictory state of affairs is not a thing at all, but NOTHING. Exegesis Analysis According to these theologians, this law is not a law above God that he assents to but, rather, logic is an eternal part of God's nature, like his omniscience or omnibenevolence. But more than its wide appeal, it's rooted in the very language and heart of the Bible, which makes it very special indeed. Can God create a Rock so Heavy He cannot lift it. Found insideGod can create a rock so heavy that even He can't lift it because not being ... If God can create a rock that He cannot lift, then God is not omnipotent. God is limited in his actions to his nature. If such a rock exists, then by definition, the universe is a place where that rock cannot be lifted. September 2017 December 2017 If God cannot create a rock so heavy that He cannot lift it, then God is not omnipotent. This raises the question, similar to the Euthyphro Dilemma, of where this law of logic, which God is bound to obey, comes from. Found inside – Page 497sparked generations of discussion and debate and have led to unexpected paradoxes: Can God create a rock so heavy that even he cannot lift it? Yes, God can create a rock too heavy for God to lift! This is like saying that since God is all-powerful He can be not all-powerful. Can God create a stone which he cannot lift? Now if we belong to God, and are of the same image that is of Christ, then we too are partakers in the lot that has been prepared for Christ. But I say, this is not the case, for man has been set to him a cross. There must be a cross. False. Well, the simple answer is no, He cannot create something so heavy He cannot lift it. The majority of Bible scholars do not believe that eyewitnesses or the associates of eyewitnesses wrote the Gospels. It implies that if God cannot create this rock then He is not all-powerful; and if He can create this rock and hence cannot lift it, then He again is not all-powerful. For if there was anything He couldn’t lift, that would prove Him a being of finite strength. Please try again. If the rock can be lifted, then by definition, the universe is a place where the rock can be lifted. By using this site, you agree to our Privacy Policy and our Terms of Use. Yes. Either we answer that God can make a big rock he cannot lift or that God cannot make a rock big enough that he can’t lift it. In fact, the question It's called our human free choice to make a mess of His world. Philosophical Questions is, in fact, something God cannot accomplish.

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