Author:
Wade A. Tisthammer
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Date Posted: 05/27/02 5:06pm
In reply to:
Damoclese
's message, "A God bound by logic?" on 05/27/02 11:11am
>An old question that has often been posed here is
>"Could God make a mountain so big that he himself
>could not lift it?"
>
>On the surface this seems like a trite little question
>designed to tease the brain. What it asks is much
>deeper.
>
>Basically, this question asks is God bound by the
>rules of logic, or is he not? If you answer that God
>is bound by the rules of logic, that meaning he cannot
>make a mountain so big he himself cannot lift it
>suddenly God becomes less than all powerful. There is
>at least one thing he cannot do, which means he isn't
>all powerful.
Modern theists typically claim that God is omnipotent to the greatest possible extent. God can do anything that can be done, even if he can't defy basic rules of logic (find England on a U.S. map etc.). This is the sort of thing theists often speak of when they talk about God being omnipotent. Now it is true that this doesn't make him able to do literally everything, but so what? God can still create the universe and dictate its natural laws, create souls, give creatures free will, and kick your butt in that Jeopardy game show.
Long story short, playing games with semantics and petty logic in things like “creating an immovable stone” don’t do much against modern theistic philosophies regarding omnipotence in part because they miss its fundamental nature. Indeed, if you ever get the chance to challenge God personally with this issue He just might turn the semantics against you.
| Human: | Hey God, you can do anything right? | | God: | You betcha. | | Human: | I don’t think you can, and I can prove it. Let’s see you create an immovable stone. | | God: | No problemo. * Creates an immovable stone. * | | Human: | Quite impressive.
| | God: | Thank you. |
| Human: | Now put that stone on top of that hill. | | God: | That's not fair! You're toying with semantics and petty logic. | | Human: | Big deal! If you can’t do this it means I’ve proved you wrong. Now let’s see you do it! | | God: | Let me think about this one... Got it. * Disincorporates the universe, then reconstructs it with the stone on top of the hill.* You see, I can play games with logic and semantics too. |
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