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Re: don't ask don't tell [message #442232 is a reply to message #442230] Thu, 06 January 2011 00:47 Go to previous messageGo to previous message
R315r4z0r is currently offline  R315r4z0r
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Altzan wrote on Thu, 06 January 2011 01:20

Quote:

A common response is that since God is supposedly omnipotent, the phrase "could not lift" doesn't make sense and the paradox is meaningless. An alternative version would be to assume that an non-corporeal God cannot lift anything, but can raise it (a linguistic pedantry) - or to use the beliefs of Christians and 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. As such, God could create a stone so heavy that, in one incarnation, he was unable to lift it - but would be able to do something that an incarnation that could lift it couldn't.

C. S. Lewis argues that when talking about omnipotence, referencing "a rock so heavy that God cannot lift it" is nonsense just as much as referencing "a square circle." So asking "Can God create a rock so heavy that even he cannot lift it?" is just as much nonsense as asking "Can God draw a square circle?" The logical contradiction here being God's simultaneous ability and disability in lifting the rock (the statement "God can lift this rock" must have a truth value of either true or false, it cannot possess both). Therefore the question (and therefore the perceived paradox) is meaningless. Nonsense does not suddenly acquire sense and meaning with the addition of the two words, "God can" before it.


That's a terrible answer. It doesn't correlate any reasoning as to why those metaphors are examples of it being nonsensical. It just says they are leaves it at that. The guy just threw in some big words to make it sound like he knew what he was talking about...

My car is as fast as the sky is blue. Does that make any sense to you? Probably not. Unless I give more perspective, that statement doesn't make sense at all.

So, explain to me how "a square circle" can draw any similarities to an item so heavy that God can't even lift it.

You can't draw a square circle. That's not a paradox, that's just nonsensical. But an item has weight; it can weigh so much one cannot lift it or it can weigh so little that anyone can. A heavy item is not nonsense.

As for the part about not being about lift anything but being able to raise it also fails to "solve" the paradox. Raising something does not require lifting (for example levitation), but lifting does require raising. To say he cannot lift is also saying he lacks the ability to and is therefore not omnipotent. Corporeal or not, God is said to be able to manifest physically or spiritually. Meaning if God can't "lift" something in non-corporeal form, then he should be able to do it in corporeal form.

Pyr0man1c wrote on Thu, 06 January 2011 00:47

R315r4z0r wrote on Wed, 05 January 2011 23:32

M0FiR3 wrote on Thu, 06 January 2011 00:25

its called a paradox retard ... its like arguing an unstoppable force vs an immovable object


However, this particular paradox disproves the ability to be omnipotent in our level of reality. (Meaning if God ever 'appeared' to us in our reality, He couldn't be omnipotent without changing the laws of logic, probability and physics)


What's your point?

My point is that being omnipotent is impossible.

[Updated on: Thu, 06 January 2011 00:49]

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