A friend of mine asked me the above question with respect to God's omnipotence.
Is there an answer to this besides yes or no?
Thanks.
Norm
Is there an answer to this besides yes or no?
Thanks.
Norm
Can God create a rock so big that even he can't lift it?
- Thread starter Norm d'Plume
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durangodawood
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GrowingSmaller
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God does not lift rocks, personally. For every thing there is a cause. If a rock is lifted it is lifted by a created cause, such as a digger.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excavator
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excavator
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I don't think your friend deserves an answer but giving him the benifit of a doubt a person might say.
That it was a very smart question that only a dumby can answer but if you can explain to me what omnipotents means then I'm sure we can answer that question.
That it was a very smart question that only a dumby can answer but if you can explain to me what omnipotents means then I'm sure we can answer that question.
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Soyeong
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God is inherently logical so logic stems from who God is. To say that God is omnipotent does not mean that God can do anything, but rather it is to say that God can do anything that is possible to do with power.
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durangodawood
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God logic may look like illogic to us, what with our finite minds stuck in time.
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elopez
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The question is an example of a loaded question. It is set up in the format of a yes-no question, though no matter which way we answer, yes or no, we become committed to the conclusion that God is not omnipotent - something we disagree with. The question traps the answerer with an unsupported presupposition, namely that there is a rock too heavy for God to lift. In this sense, a loaded question is one that contains controversial, false, or otherwise unsupported presuppositions, which the question is strife with.
The appropriate response to a loaded question is not to answer it directly, rather to challenge the presupposition in question. My response would look something like:
How do you know there is a rock even too heavy for God to lift in the first place? There is no such rock if indeed nothing is more powerful than God. So, there is no rock too heavy for God to lift.
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Soyeong
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"What is in an effect must in some way be in the cause. For example, if I were to give you $20, the effect would be you having $20 and I am the cause of this effect. However, the only way I can cause that effect is if I have the $20 in the first place. There are many ways in which I might have it: I might have a $20 bill in my wallet, two $10 bills, four $5 bills, or $20 in pennies, or I might have $20 in my bank account and write you a check, or I might borrow the $20 from someone else, or work for it, or perhaps I have a friend who has a key to the US treasury printing press and I get him to run off a $20 to give to you, or I get congress to pass a law that permits me personally to manufacture $20 bills. These are all various ways that I might in theory give you $20, but if none of these ways are available to me, then I can't do it.
When I have a $20 bill in my hand and I cause you to have, the what is in the cause is in the effect formally. I myself was an instance of the form or pattern of having a $20 bill and I caused you to become another instance of that form or pattern. When I don't have a $20 bill in my hand, but have it in my bank account, what was in the effect was in the cause virtually. Though I didn't have it on hand, I had the power to get ahold of it. When I get congress to grant me the power to manufacture $20 bills, I had it eminently. I not only had the power to acquire $20, but I had the higher power of causing them to exist in the first place. So when it is said that what is in an effect must in some way be in the cause, what is meant is that it must be in its cause virtually or eminently, if not formally." - Edward Feser
So regardless of how the universe appears to us to be, God could not cause the effect of it being the way it is without that effect being in the cause.
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