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Can God
make a rock so big He can't pick it up?
This question is representative of the type of
paradoxes atheists use in attempts to prove that God cannot exist.
It works like this. God is supposed to be omnipotent. If He is
omnipotent, then He can create a rock so big that He can't pick it
up. If He cannot make a rock like this, then He is not
omnipotent. If He can make a rock so big He can't pick it up, then
He isn't omnipotent either. Either way demonstrates that God cannot
do something. Therefore God is not omnipotent. Therefore God
does not exist.
Is this logical? A little. However,
the problem is that this bit of logic omits some crucial information,
therefore, it's conclusion is inaccurate.
What the above "paradox" lacks is vital
information concerning God's nature. His omnipotence is not
something independent of His nature. It is part of His nature.
God has a nature and His attributes operate within that nature, as does
anything and everything else.
For example, I have human nature. I can
run. But, I cannot outrun a lion. My nature simply does not
permit it. My ability to run is connected to my nature and I cannot
violate it. So too with God. His omnipotence is connected to
His nature since being omnipotent is part of what He is.
Omnipotence, then, must be consistent with what He is and not with what He
is not since His omnipotence is not an entity to itself. Therefore,
God can only do those things that are consistent with His nature. He
cannot lie because it is against His nature to do so. Not being able to
lie does not mean He is not God or that He is not all powerful.
Also, He cannot cease to be God. Since He is in all places at all
times, if He stopped existing then He wouldn't be in all places at all
time. Therefore, He cannot cease to exist without violating His own
nature.
The point is that God cannot do something that is
a violation of His own existence and nature. Therefore, He cannot
make a rock so big he can't pick up, or make something bigger than
Himself, etc. But, not being able to do this does not mean He
is not God nor that He is not omnipotent. Omnipotence is not the ability
to do anything conceivable, but the ability to do anything consistent with
His nature and consistent with His desire within the realm of His
unlimited and universal power which we do not possess. This does not
mean He can violate His own nature. If He did something inconsistent
with His nature, then He would be self contradictory. If God were self
contradictory, He would not be true. Likewise, if He did something that
violated his nature, like make a rock so big He can't pick it up, He would
also not be true since that would be a self contradiction. Since
truth is not self contradictory, as neither is God, if He were not true,
then He would not be God. But God is true and not self
contradictory, therefore, God cannot do something that violates His own
nature.
Another way to look at it is realize that in order for God to make something so big He
couldn't pick it up, He would have to make a rock bigger than Himself.
Since He is infinite in size, He would have to make something that would
be bigger than Himself. Since it is His nature to be the biggest
thing in existence because He created all things, He cannot violate His
own nature by making a rock that is larger than He.
Also, since a rock, by definition, is not
infinitely big, then it isn't logically possible to make a rock, something
that is finite in size, be infinite in size (no longer a rock) since only
God is infinite in size. At dictionary.com, a rock is defined as a
"Relatively hard, naturally formed mineral or petrified matter;
stone. a) A relatively small piece or fragment of such material. b) A
relatively large body of such material, as a cliff or peak. c) A naturally
formed aggregate of mineral matter constituting a significant part of the
earth's crust." A rock, by definition is not infinitely large.
So, to say that the rock must be so big that God cannot pick it up is to
say that the rock is no longer a rock.
What the critics are
asking is that God become self contradictory as a proof He doesn't
exist. Their assertion is illogical from the start. So what
they are doing is trying to get God to be illogical. They want to
use illogic to prove God doesn't exist instead of logic. It doesn't
work and the "paradox" is self-refuting and invalid.
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