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How do we know there's a God? What is he like?

Re: The Omnipotence Paradox

Postby Scape211 » Thu Jan 13, 2022 9:47 am

Also, this kind of topic was covered hundreds of years ago by Thomas Aquinas:

"Whatever implies contradiction does not come within the scope of divine omnipotence, because it cannot have the aspect of possibility."


To say that an omnipotent being can't do something logically impossible does not limit that being in any way. You can't ask the being to defeat his own omnipotence then claim it's not omnipotent when it can't. There is nothing rationally coherent about it.

When someone asks a question like 'Can God make a stone so heavy even he can't lift it?'
We should say 'Yes he can make a stone like that AND he can lift it.'
They would, of course, respond 'Hey that's logically absurd!'
and we can then say 'so is your question. so what's the problem?'

If we define omnipotence as logically absurd, we should expect the answer to be as such.
Scape211
 
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Re: The Omnipotence Paradox

Postby jimwalton » Mon Nov 07, 2022 12:05 am

I love this comment:

You can't ask the being to defeat his own omnipotence then claim it's not omnipotent when it can't.


I also like this:

When someone asks a question like 'Can God make a stone so heavy even he can't lift it?'
We should say 'Yes he can make a stone like that AND he can lift it.'
They would, of course, respond 'Hey that's logically absurd!'
and we can then say 'so is your question. so what's the problem?'
jimwalton
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