What kind of physical impossibilities can God create?

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When asked if God can create logical impossibilities, the answer is uniformly: “no”. On the other hand, it is also uniformly asserted that God can create physical impossibilities. The laws of nature are not an obstacle for God.

So, let’s see a few examples:


  1. *]There is an absolute zero, which is the “coldest” possible temperature, there the Brownian motion of molecules stops. To achieve minus one degree Kelvin is only a physical impossibility. Can God do it?

    *] There is an absolute maximum speed, the speed of light in a vacuum. No physical object with a resting mass of more than zero can achieve, much less surpass it. This is just a physical limit, so it should not hinder God. Can God move anything faster than the speed of light?

    *] There is also a maximum of heat, where the molecules would move with the speed of light. Can God make anything “hotter” than this maximum?

    *] Time is unidirectional, it goes from the fast to the future. Theoretically, it could go in the other direction. Can God reverse the direction of time? Can God make time travel possible? Can God change the past?

    *] Opposite electromagnetically charged objects attract each other, like electromagentically charged ojects repel each other. Can God create the opposite, where like charges repel and opposite charges attract? Or something else, where all charges repel each other? Or all charges attract each other?

    Think about it.
 
All your examples are taken from this universe. That’s not your fault because it’s the only one we know. 🙂 What we do know is that there has to be consistency in any created universe** if** there is to be order and regularity. The Creator could suspend a particular law on certain occasions but there has to be a limit. If there were too many suspensions the law would cease to be a law and the purpose of creating that law would be defeated. So there is one example of a physical impossibility.

There also has to be consistency between different laws. One cannot be changed without repercussions on others - as far as we know. The trouble is that our knowledge is limited. Even though it has achieved a great deal there are an infinite number of possibilities and the only way to find out is by analysis or experimentation. These methods are beyond our scope because we have no experience of creating universes or the power to do so…
 
tonyrey said:
The Creator could suspend a particular law on certain occasions but there has to be a limit.
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Can he suspend any of those mentioned, even temporarily, and in a limited scope? Make something colder than absolute zero? Make something faster than the speed of light?
 
Spock said:
Can he suspend any of those mentioned, even temporarily, and in a limited scope? Make something colder than absolute zero? Make something faster than the speed of light?
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I really have no idea!
 
God cannot die. But Jesus is/was God and he died.

How can that be?

Can God create a rock too heavy for him to lift? Jesus worked as a carpenter; probably there were things too heavy for Jesus to lift.

'Splain that.
 
WinterWH said:
God cannot die. But Jesus is/was God and he died.

How can that be?

Can God create a rock too heavy for him to lift? Jesus worked as a carpenter; probably there were things too heavy for Jesus to lift.

'Splain that.
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I don’t want to derail my own thread. So just one remark, and I don’t want to follow it up: Jesus’ divine nature was proclaimed a long time after his death. He himself never asserted it. The “Can God create a rock too heavy…” is not a physical problem (contrary to all appearances) it is simply a logical problem. Christians readily agree that God cannot create “married bachelors” and “square circles”, because these are logical contradictions.
 
Latest airplane reading:

valeslake.com/bookmart.htm

“Questioning Einstein: Is Relativity Necessary?” So the speed of light may not be all that it’s cracked up to be.

Good questions, but we need to read more. Thank goodness for long airplane rides and long waits in airline terminals and long lonely nights in hotel rooms.
 
Spock said:
I don’t want to derail my own thread. So just one remark, and I don’t want to follow it up: Jesus’ divine nature was proclaimed a long time after his death. He himself never asserted it. The “Can God create a rock too heavy…” is not a physical problem (contrary to all appearances) it is simply a logical problem. Christians readily agree that God cannot create “married bachelors” and “square circles”, because these are logical contradictions.
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You humans are limited to human logic and to the “laws of physics”.

[Correct me if I’m wrong; maybe someone can quote chapter and verse. But didn’t Jesus himself say “the father and I are one”?]
 
Spock said:
I don’t want to derail my own thread. So just one remark, and I don’t want to follow it up: Jesus’ divine nature was proclaimed a long time after his death. He himself never asserted it. The “Can God create a rock too heavy…” is not a physical problem (contrary to all appearances) it is simply a logical problem. Christians readily agree that God cannot create “married bachelors” and “square circles”, because these are logical contradictions.
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Jesus knew he was divine, but his human nature didn’t do MAGIC. People tend to confuse Magic with Miracles. They are not the same.
Jesus performed miracles, not magic tricks. People were (are) awed by them, not Impressed by them.
When Jesus was praying in the garden before he died, he asked if his Father would take this cup from him, but he also knew it was not his Father’s will.
Our Father sent Jesus to save us from sin and death, not to suspend reality.
Faith is a gift, but one must accept the gift.
The sacraments are where you will find the intersection of the spiritual with the profane (meaning earthly).
 
Jesus did proclaim his divinity:

John 10:30 - "I and the Father are one."

John 8:23-24 - 'And He was saying to them, "You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. Therefore I said to you that you will die in your sins; for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.'

And here he doesn’t say it directly but he affirms Simon Peter when he says it:

Matthew 16:15-17: **He said to them, “But who do you say that I am?”

Simon Peter answered, “You are the Christ, the Son of the living God.”

And Jesus said to him, "Blessed are you, Simon Barjona, because flesh and blood did not reveal this to you, but My Father who is in heaven.**

Spock, before you make such statements about what Jesus apparently did not say you might want to do your research.
 
I guess God could make a tank that hangs in the air the way bricks don’t. (Thank you, Douglas Adams!)
 
The easiest way to think of this and to answer this is to remember that all that is, is created by God. Creation is of Him. As such creation is subject to God’s laws. God is not bound by the laws of his own creation. It is because of this that he established the Eucharist, whereby bread and wine, things of his creation, are transformed into the body, blood, soul and divinity of Jesus Christ through the miracle of transubstantiation. This is how he rose from the dead. This is how he ascended into heaven. Simply because he is GOD.

I note in your post, you say you have no religion. These things I have said we see and believe through the eyes of faith. I will pray for you that you receive the gift of faith, which will lead you to truth.
 
Spock said:
I don’t want to derail my own thread. So just one remark, and I don’t want to follow it up: Jesus’ divine nature was proclaimed a long time after his death. He himself never asserted it. The “Can God create a rock too heavy…” is not a physical problem (contrary to all appearances) it is simply a logical problem. Christians readily agree that God cannot create “married bachelors” and “square circles”, because these are logical contradictions.
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bolding mine

This is where you are wrong. Jesus’ statement to to the authorities that "Before Abraham was,** I AM** was that declaration. The term **I AM, YAHWE **in Hebrew, could not even be spoken. He used it and proclaimed it was **HE. ** **I AM **is the translation of the Hebrew YAHWE, which referred only to God.
 
Deacon_Ed_B said:
The easiest way to think of this and to answer this is to remember that all that is, is created by God. Creation is of Him. As such creation is subject to God’s laws. God is not bound by the laws of his own creation.
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Are the laws of logic also created by God? If, so do you say that God is able to create square circles? Lower the temperature to minus one Kelvin? Alter the past? Just so I understand your position.
 
Spock said:
Are the laws of logic also created by God? If, so do you say that God is able to create square circles? Lower the temperature to minus one Kelvin? Alter the past? Just so I understand your position.
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Simply stated, you with a finite mind, cannot fathom the infinite. God is infinite. Because of this, he is able to accomplish all things. God does not contradict himself. He is infinite good. As being infinite good, anything disordered, bad, evil, is not from God. We can come up with logic for our finite minds, but God knows all intuitively as all is of his creation.

I do not intend to spend my entire time on this thread answering questions such can God create a square circle, etc, as this would be a waste of time. If you are wanting to discuss truth, in a substantive manner, I will do so.

Answer me one question. Do you believe in God? If you do not, maybe I could give you an example that would convince you, maybe not. Do you believe in him?
 
Deacon_Ed_B said:
Simply stated, you with a finite mind, cannot fathom the infinite. God is infinite. Because of this, he is able to accomplish all things. God does not contradict himself. He is infinite good. As being infinite good, anything disordered, bad, evil, is not from God. We can come up with logic for our finite minds, but God knows all intuitively as all is of his creation.

I do not intend to spend my entire time on this thread answering questions such can God create a square circle, etc, as this would be a waste of time. If you are wanting to discuss truth, in a substantive manner, I will do so.

Answer me one question. Do you believe in God? If you do not, maybe I could give you an example that would convince you, maybe not. Do you believe in him?
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If you do not care to answer my questions, that is fine with me. I will answer yours: “I do not believe in God”. As far as I am concerned, God is on the same level of believability as Santa Claus and the Tooth Fairy - and no insult is intended in this remark. It is merely a statement of fact.
 
Spock said:
When asked if God can create logical impossibilities, the answer is uniformly: “no”. On the other hand, it is also uniformly asserted that God can create physical impossibilities. The laws of nature are not an obstacle for God.

So, let’s see a few examples:


  1. *]There is an absolute zero, which is the “coldest” possible temperature, there the Brownian motion of molecules stops. To achieve minus one degree Kelvin is only a physical impossibility. Can God do it?

    *] There is an absolute maximum speed, the speed of light in a vacuum. No physical object with a resting mass of more than zero can achieve, much less surpass it. This is just a physical limit, so it should not hinder God. Can God move anything faster than the speed of light?

    *] There is also a maximum of heat, where the molecules would move with the speed of light. Can God make anything “hotter” than this maximum?

    *] Time is unidirectional, it goes from the fast to the future. Theoretically, it could go in the other direction. Can God reverse the direction of time? Can God make time travel possible? Can God change the past?

    *] Opposite electromagnetically charged objects attract each other, like electromagentically charged ojects repel each other. Can God create the opposite, where like charges repel and opposite charges attract? Or something else, where all charges repel each other? Or all charges attract each other?

    Think about it.
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  1. I would, in general, agree with Tony, that these questions about physical impossibility do not seem to bind God. At least one of the above examples may contain a logical contradiction, too, however. Time travel is, I believe, logically contradictory – or rather, it is logically contradictory in a universe where the laws of causality apply.

    Could God suspend the laws of causality? Is that question even meaningful? I don’t know.

    I’m not sure I would say that God goes about breaking the laws of physics, however. It does seem quite reasonable to me, however, to say that we do not know what the laws of physics are – so we would hardly be qualified to say when they are broken. I believe that science gets better and better approximations of these laws, but no amount of inductive experience can ever prove that a law is universally applicable – that is, that a law is a law.

    As for the side conversations in this thread: Spock, you managed to derail your thread with the slightest of hints. There is, of course, no scientifically verifiable proof we can possibly have that Jesus said “I am” nor that Jesus claimed to forgive sins (both of which would be, in context, claims to be God). No one knows, nor could anyone know, that “He himself never asserted it.” And thus, no one can justly make the assertion you made.

    And with that, I am off to send the kiddos to bed…
 
Spock:

Limitations, lets see. What limitations are imposed on the fact that you are the only one of your kind that exists, and that you can never know how and by what mechanism you exist.

From the point of view of his own physical nature, perhaps God would be incapable of knowing the consensus of decision making in a multi-dimentional, plural dietic cosmos. He would only know what works for him. He could even decree that inconsistency is a dietic norm. Perhaps another parallel perfect god would allow some things he doesn’t.

At the forefront in these I think is the choice of existence for aware beings. I have heard all the arguments, but still come away that there is a hidden intrinsic wrong in it’s rejection. The main factor in this issue is risk. I can see justification without the risk involved. Perhaps 3 out of 5 hypothetical gods would allow it

This factor is an epidiment for every creature’s case, has it is our lot that we cannot appeal to what is typical in dietic actions.

Andy
 
Spock said:
When asked if God can create logical impossibilities, the answer is uniformly: “no”. On the other hand, it is also uniformly asserted that God can create physical impossibilities. The laws of nature are not an obstacle for God.

So, let’s see a few examples:


  1. *]There is an absolute zero, which is the “coldest” possible temperature, there the Brownian motion of molecules stops. To achieve minus one degree Kelvin is only a physical impossibility. Can God do it?

    *] There is an absolute maximum speed, the speed of light in a vacuum. No physical object with a resting mass of more than zero can achieve, much less surpass it. This is just a physical limit, so it should not hinder God. Can God move anything faster than the speed of light?

    *] There is also a maximum of heat, where the molecules would move with the speed of light. Can God make anything “hotter” than this maximum?

    *] Time is unidirectional, it goes from the fast to the future. Theoretically, it could go in the other direction. Can God reverse the direction of time? Can God make time travel possible? Can God change the past?

    *] Opposite electromagnetically charged objects attract each other, like electromagentically charged ojects repel each other. Can God create the opposite, where like charges repel and opposite charges attract? Or something else, where all charges repel each other? Or all charges attract each other?

    Think about it.
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  1. I’m inclined to think that God cannot do physical impossibilities which are truly impossibilities. In the first example, “colder than absolute zero” seems to have no meaning, and so would be a logical impossibility as well. It would be the equivalent of making molecules more motionless than perfect motionlessness.

    Other physical impossibilities may not actually be physical impossibilites given God’s power over physics. Perhaps entropy really can be reversed, and time need not necessarily be unidirectional.

    When trying to accelerate to the speed of light, every bit of additional acceleration adds to the energy and therefore the mass of the object, such that at c, it would have infinite mass (and zero length, with time standing still). So while it may be truly impossible to reach lightspeed, perhaps it is not impossible to exceed lightspeed, providing one is willing to accept negative mass, negative length, and time moving backward.
 
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