Thread: The Rock God Cannot Lift - Paradox, or not?

But when we speak in totalities, is there really any limitation? Is there any "lack" in "everything", and can "everything" really be measured?

Definitions:
1. If X is omnipotent, for every infinitive verb S, X can S
Axioms:
2. There is some X that is omnipotent
Therefore:
3. Since X is omnipotent, X can (create a rock whose nature is that X cannot lift it)
- Hence X cannot lift such a rock
4. Since X is omnipotent, X can (lift such a rock)
5. This is a contradiction
6. Hence an axiom must be false
Conclusion:
7. There is no X that is omnipotent
8. (ie. God cannot be omnipotent)

Now this is all good, but all it shows is that this particular definition of omnipotence is useless, since nothing can actually be omnipotent. Most religions, I would say, are more likely to define omnipotence in a more reasonable way (like the lucid dreamer who is capable of anything in the context of a dream, or the computer programmer "omnipotent" in the context of a simulation).
So the Unliftable Rock argument is pretty useless really for proving that God doesn't exist, because it can easily be circumvented just by defining omnipotence in a way that excludes contradictory acts.

EDIT: Also, my browser double-posts every time I post something. Waahh, why...

Ahh.. I love this question!

"Can god create a rock so strong he/she/it cannot break?" Or "Can God create a ring so small that he cannot fit through?"

In all honesty, when I think of these questions I feel that the essence or energy we call God is so out of our mental boundaries, that the answer to both questions are yes. ... our simple human minds just can't fathom how the answer works out to be true. ... its something that just is.

Time and space are not relevant in the universe or in the realm/dimension of the being we call God... it just is.

It is a paradox. Unless God is a being whose existance is beyond physical laws. If he is truly beyond the universe, we can't apply our conceptions of power to truly understand what power is to him.

Turns out the question of weather or not it is a paradox is a paradox.

It is a modern day Koan. Meditate and maybe your mind will grant you access to the excluded middle.