{"id":301,"date":"2009-04-09T15:26:14","date_gmt":"2009-04-09T15:26:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/04\/pondering-the-omnipotence-para.html"},"modified":"2009-04-09T15:26:14","modified_gmt":"2009-04-09T15:26:14","slug":"pondering-the-omnipotence-para","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/04\/pondering-the-omnipotence-para.html","title":{"rendered":"pondering the omnipotence paradox"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"31.gif\"<\/span>
Consider the classic omnipotence paradox<\/a>, expressed as a logical conundrum thus:<\/p>\n

\n

Posit an omnipotent God who created the Universe. Can God create a stone He cannot lift?<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

If the answer is yes, then there exists a stone that God cannot
\nlift, hence God is not omnipotent. If the answer is no, then God cannot
\ndo something, and hence God is not omnipotent.<\/p>\n

Now, this is a bit of a problem for some as far as God’s existence
\nis concerned (of course you can have degrees of omnipotence, but as far
\nas the major religions go omnipotence is part of the job description). <\/p>\n

However, the question itself is logically flawed, akin to asking
\n“What color are the eyes of the King of the United States?” The reason
\nfor the flaw is because we are trying to shoehorn certain biased
\nmeanings into the words “stone”, “lift” and “cannot”.<\/p>\n

Consider first the stone. The paradox doesn’t invoke more thorny
\ncreations like an equal to God (now, that would be a philosophical
\nhead-scratcher). It’s just about a stone. So, what is a stone? It’s a
\nphysical object, comprised of N ordinary bosons, and of radius R.
\nNothing more complex than that (though presumably at some very large
\nradius R it would collapse under it’s own weight and become a neutron
\nstar). But let’s be really generous and rephrase the question, “Can God
\ncreate a black hole He cannot lift?” No.<\/p>\n

Let’s turn our attention to lifting. For us to lift a black hole
\nis sort of meaningless, but if you consider that to lift something is
\nmerely to manipulate it, then we can generalize further to “Can God
\ncreate a black hole he cannot manipulate?”<\/p>\n

Now by this point the Dawkins acolyte will accuse me of having moved
\nthe goalposts. “Surely your omniscient God could create a big stone,
\nimmune to gravitational forces which would cause its collapse but not<\/em>
\nimmune to an external gravitational field which exists solely to
\nprovide something against which to literally lift it?” I suppose if you
\ninsist that this is different from what I described in my reformulation
\nabove, we can agree to disagree, because frankly creating a
\nsupermassive black hole (and just how massive, I am about to explore
\nfurther) in an instant and then shoving it around seems pretty much
\njust as miraculous to me. Then again, as a believer in a religious
\nfaith, I’m not exactly addressing the paradox with an open mind, now, am
\nI?<\/p>\n

So let us continue. The last hurdle is the word, “cannot”. For a
\nblack hole to be so massive as to essentially be impossible to
\nmanipulate, it must be so large as to not provide any room for it to be
\nmanipulated. The physical manipulation of an object in N-dimensional
\nspace involves rotation about and translation along the N physical
\naxes. Since God created the Universe of radius U, and the black hole is
\nradius R, then the only way the black ole cannot be manipulated is if R
\n= U – in essence, if the universe itself contains only the black hole
\n(or the stone, if you insist) and nothing else. <\/p>\n

Now, the question has reduced down to, Can God create the Universe?
\nTo which we already know the answer is yes, by virtue of the Posit
\nabove. <\/p>\n

Alternatively, we could just be talking about a normal piece of
\nrock, say the size of a softball, weighing less than a pound, and
\nunremarkable in every way except that it has also been assigned a
\nproperty that nothing (including God himself) can move it. This too is
\na meaningless paradox, though for a different reason than the one
\nabove. In essence, what does it mean to say that god cannot move it?
\nGod can choose not to move it, but since God is omnipotent, the
\ndefinition of that power is that God can do whatever God wants to do.
\nDefining omnipotence as “the ability to not do something” is not
\nomnipotence but limitation. <\/p>\n

To put it plainly, anything God creates, God can uncreate. Perhaps
\nGod can relinquish that power if God so desired; the ability to
\nrelinquish it would fall within omnipotence, but once relinquished, God
\nwould no longer be omnipotent. That doesn’t mean God wasn’t omnipotent
\nbefore choosing to do so, though. In a sense, thats what this
\nInterpretation 2 is asking: Can God choose to abdicate being God?<\/em>
\nThe answer is probably yes, but that’s an affirmation of God’s present
\nomnipotence, not a denial of it. Creating a stone He could not lift?
\nNo, he “can’t” do that, anymore than he can’t not be omnipotent while
\nHe is omnipotent. <\/p>\n

That said, if you think that faith can be discussed with logic, then you’re kind of missing the point. But Douglas Adams said it best<\/a>, which is rather ironic given how fierce an atheist he was. <\/p>\n

Related: discussion at Dean Esmay’s blog<\/a> about this topic. Also, the comic strip is from 50 Answers<\/a> by Stereotypist<\/a>.<\/p>\n

This post is reprinted<\/a> from my geek, scifi and anime blog, Haibane.info<\/a>. It’s where I let my inner geek roam wild. Stop by and take a look!<\/i><\/p>\n

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Consider the classic omnipotence paradox, expressed as a logical conundrum thus: Posit an omnipotent God who created the Universe. Can God create a stone He cannot lift? If the answer is yes, then there exists a stone that God cannot lift, hence God is not omnipotent. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=301"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/301\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=301"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=301"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=301"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}