Can we limit God?

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richiejm3

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Can God create a rock so big that he couldn’t pick it up? I know it’s a silly question but it’s one that someone asked me and I’m just looking for a witty answer. I couldn’t come up with one so if I could get some help I’d greatly appreciate it.
 
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richiejm3:
Can God create a rock so big that he couldn’t pick it up? I know it’s a silly question but it’s one that someone asked me and I’m just looking for a witty answer. I couldn’t come up with one so if I could get some help I’d greatly appreciate it.
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It is not silly at all. It shows that the concept “omnipotent” is nonsensical.
 
First of all, who said we had to make sense of God? 😃

and just as a stupid answer:
God the Father could create a Rock sooo big that God the Son (as human) could not lift it. Also, God the Son(as human), could not Create a Rock So big that God the Father could not Lift it…
 
This is not a silly question because it is, indeed, a question you will get from the more sophmoric breed of atheists. There’s a reason atheists are atheists: because they don’t think things through and assume no one else has either.

Can God make a rock so big that even he can’t lift it? If he can’t lift it then he is not all powerful. Then the rock has become more powerful than God and whatever is more powerful than God is God. God has infinite qualities not finite, God can only do things that are possible: he can’t make square circles or a two sided triangle. It is asking God to bring about a logically contradictory state to his own nature.

This is what is called a category mistake to say he can make something he can’t lift. Its like asking a bachelor what his wife’s name is? What does the color yellow taste like. Color doesn’t taste. Its not possible for God to make a rock so big that even he can’t lift it. If he can make it he can lift it. If he can create it , he can destroy it. . It does not show that God has a limit to his power which means he does not possess infinite power. This means whatever he created is under his jurisdiction under his control, it can never have equality.
“Whatever implies being and nonbeing simultaneously is incompatible with the absolute possibility which falls under divine omnipotence. Such a contradiction is not subject to it, not from any impotence in God, but because it simply does not have the nature of being feasible or possible. Whatever, then, does not involve a contradiction is in the realm of the possible with respect to which God is omnipotent. Whatever involves a contradiction is not within the scope of omnipotence because it cannot qualify for possibility. Better, however, to say that it cannot be done, rather than God cannot do it.” (T. Aquinas Summa Theologica p. 163-164 , Volume I, ques. 15 ans. 3)
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Hitetlen:
It is not silly at all. It shows that the concept “omnipotent” is nonsensical.
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That’s not at all what it shows. It shows that a weight too heavy for God to lift or a square circle are contradictions. They make no sense and are just the combination of two complete opposites which contradict each other.
These contradictions are made up by those who try to challenge the omnipotence of God. It is these contradictions that are nonsensical.
 
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Hitetlen:
It is not silly at all. It shows that the concept “omnipotent” is nonsensical.
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Nonsense. It only shows your understanding of the matter in question is deficient.

Can God make a rock so big he can’t move it? No, He can’t. Omnipotence does not mean the ability to do self-contradictory things (for example, cause the existence of both an immoveable object and an irresistible force at the same time) or absurd things (for example, a four-sided triangle).

– Mark L. Chance.
 
God is limited:

He cannot do anything that is self-contradictory.

He cannot do anything contrary to his character.

He cannot break any promise or covenant which he has made.
 
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