Can God Create a Rock So Big He Can’t Lift It?

Ah, yes, the favorite question of many a skeptic and, of course, atheist. Bodie at Answers in Genesis sheds some light on answering the question:

For this to be a valid question, God would need to be bound by the laws of gravity. Obviously, God is not bound by His creation (i.e., gravity), as it is part of the universe He created. This is like asking on what page of Shakespeare’s Hamlet can we find Shakespeare? It is an illogical question. One could argue that Shakespeare’s characteristics are in the play, but he, as the playwright, is certainly not bound by the pages of his work.

In other words, this question first assumes that gravity is greater than God. How can something God creates be greater than God? The assumption is illogical right from the start, and thus the question is illogical right from the start — this is called the contrary-to-the-premise fallacy. Since this question assumes God is bound to His creation, it cannot be referring to the Creator God of the Bible. One way to reveal this fallacy when someone asks this question is to ask:

“What ‘god’ are you talking about?”

They will probably respond: “The God of the Bible” (as this person apparently intended).

Then you can respond: “The God of the Bible is not bound by His creation, and since this question has this ‘god’ bound by gravity, it cannot be referring to the God of the Bible.”

Do share if you have creative and Biblical answers to this question. :)

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A different form of an old question: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irresistible_force_paradox

My Biblical answer? Job 38:1-41:34

The reply to the REAL between-the-lines question behind that question is to be found in Psa 14:1-3.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_paradox

A skeptic who asks this question denies the law of non-contradiction and fails to understand the concept of “God.” It’s like asking, “Can God create a triangle with more than 360 degrees?” Or “Can God create a square circle?”

But really, there are things that God cannot do. (HERESY?!?!?!) :o

For example, He cannot lie (Heb 6:18). He cannot be unjust. He cannot sin. He cannot learn something new. He cannot defy the laws of logic and moral laws (since these laws are found in His very Mind and Nature).

yours truly,
Doggy Poo

Bodie makes an excellent point. The other point is that omnipotence doesn’t mean being able to do the illogical. For example, you could ask, “Could God create a four-sided triangle or a three-sided square?” Or, how about, “Can God create another god that’s more powerful than he is? Can he create a number bigger than infinity?” No, he can’t, because that’s illogical. Just because you can come up with a logical absurdity doesn’t mean you’ve proven that God is not omnipotent. Omnipotence means being able to do anything that is logically possible.

I asked this of my mentor when I first became a Christian and thought I was immensely clever at the time. However, the question in itself is illogical. The question is: Can God do A and NOT A, where A is a proposition. A and NOT A is always FALSE, i.e, impossible, infeasible, not a situation that can exist. So asking God to perform in such a situation is nonsensical rubbish.

Isaiah,

I posted a comment twice on this post yesterday. Is it gone?

Poo-poo:

My spam catcher has been super-active recently and marked your comment thus for some unknown reason. If this happens again, drop me an email. :)

I’ve just checked the spam folder and reinstated your comment manually.



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