Is there anything God cannot do?

  • Thread starter Thread starter Stradabolt
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
No, there is NOTHING God can not do. He is all-powerful and can do all things. 🙂
 
This one actually is the best answer I’ve heard - since God is goodness in and of itself, that would be the definition of lack of sin.
 
The LORD ‘has done’ all he will ever do and will do no other, because he has already done it if it will be seen temporally by us at some future. There is no past nor future in him to do something else and there is no temporal streaming of ‘now’ in him where he might do something else fantasized about in this thread.

If he has not known it ‘eternally’ he will not suddenly decide to know it now to prove himself to you just as Jesus did not turn stones into bread to prove he could do anything. This OP is a redo of the temptation in the wilderness.
 
There is nothing He “cannot” do, but there may be things he wills not to do.
 
Gareth said:
Female stallians, round squares etc?
Click to expand...
Seems kind of hard with the constraints of language. But if we getting real crazy, perhaps God could alter the meaning of the word square to include circle and then make a square circle 😆
 
Coming from a different topic, it seems as if @Gorgias was bringing up how God cannot know things that do not exist, counter positives if I recall? Maybe my wording needs to be more careful in this topic.
 
Chistian-ity said:
Coming from a different topic, it seems as if @Gorgias was bringing up how God cannot know things that do not exist, counter positives if I recall?
Click to expand...
That’s an open question in theology. God knows everything that is and will ever be – that’s the definition of ‘omniscience.’ However, does He know everything that never exists? And, if He does not know these things, does it mean He’s not omniscient?

It would seem that omniscience doesn’t necessarily entail knowing counter-factuals. Nevertheless, it’s just one theory.

In any case, if counter-factuals aren’t part of His omniscience, then (putative) actions related to them aren’t part of His omnipotence.
 
God cannot learn anything new. He is omniscient, so He already knows everything there is to know.

God cannot move. He is omnipresent so He can never leave the starting line and He is already present at the finish line.

Any of God’s omni-whatever properties impose constraints on Him.
 
That’s why one of the great mysteries is that God is eternal, yet Christ died for us.
 
He cannot do something which is logically incoherent.

This is where you get things like “Can God create a boulder so big that He cannot lift it.” Given that God is omnipotent, the concept of a class of items which exceeds infinite capacity is a logical impossibility. It is not possible for something to exist that exceeds infinity, and so He cannot create something which would. That is not a limitation of God though, as the entire concept is nonsense.

Another example is “Can God create a square circle?” That’s another logical impossibility. A shape is defined by its form, so if you change it to another form it ceases to be that shape.
 
Can God forget?
Can God learn something new?
Can God be surprised?
Can God be wrong?
Can God cease to exist?

As others pointed out it comes down to doing things not within God’s nature, which is a type of limit but still leaves God ‘maximally powerful’ as I’ve heard it put.

Perhaps an interesting is what is the origin of God’s nature? Did he author it? Can he change it? Why do we live in a universe with this God and not another? Likewise people mentioned logic above, what binds God to the laws of logic?

This to me is why ‘first cause’ arguments don’t quite do it for me. You can always look for a greater cause.
 
No, there is nothing God can’t do. He is omnipotent in every way.
 
ProdglArchitect said:
He cannot do something which is logically incoherent.

This is where you get things like “Can God create a boulder so big that He cannot lift it.”
Click to expand...
Very good post! I think I read somewhere, possibly in CS Lewis (Mere Christianity?), that the absurd does not suddenly become significant and disprove Gods existence just because you put the words “can God” in front of it. These statements self contradict. The passage gave the example that God cannot create a man with free will, and simultaneously not give that person free will. Nonsense remains nonsense whether we put God’s name in front of it or not.
 
For G-d to do something that contradicts His nature, such as behave in an evil way, would not be a limitation but rather a deprivation of G-d’s benevolence and omnipotence. By defying His own nature, G-d would be displaying weakness and fallibility.
 
@Stradabolt God cannot lie
God cannot break a covenat made by Him
 
Dan123 said:
This to me is why ‘first cause’ arguments don’t quite do it for me. You can always look for a greater cause.
Click to expand...
Exactly. That’s the point. God is not a first cause. God is un-caused.
Good observation.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top