If God is all-powerful could He ever create so big that He couldn’t lift it?

“Could God create a rock too heavy for Him to lift?”

Someone asked me this today, and he said, “if God can, He’s not all powerful, and if he can’t He’s not all powerful. How should I respond to this question?”

I saw this (http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20060929224358AAamaQ0) today while I was web-surfing and I remembered when I first heard it. I was 7, swimming in the shallow end of a lake on a summer day and this kid, probably 10 years old comes and asks me the question. I said yes, and he ripped me a new one and just swam away, feelin so content with himself. I was speechless. That has always seemed to me a stupid question, but nonethless it bugged me. So today after being reminded of the humiliation I decided to write a logical disproof of the entire question.

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The phrasing of the question brings with it three major flaws:

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1. It imagines that unlimited abilities can include a lack of ability by assuming that an absence of ability should be considered one of the many abilities. They’re opposites. An absence of an ability can never be counted as an ability. It’s similar in this sense to asking “if God can do everything can He change himself to be able to do only most things” à there are only two possibilities to this question which are opposite each other: (A) He can do all things or (B) He cannot do all things (can black ever be white? No); and even assuming He can do both A and B (which is always totally incomprehensible in any context) He would be going against His nature. But that is neither here nor there since it’s impossible to even comprehend it. 

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2. And then the bigger, more confusing problem: It assumes that there is a possibility of something greater than infinity. If God as infinite, able to do all things, then nothing can ever be added, subtracted, divided, or so on from his power. It’s like if I were to ask, “Assuming God is all powerful could He ever become weaker than the weakest human being?”  The question assumes that infinity can be subtracted from while keeping the definition of infinity in tact – since He is infinite He could never get any bit weaker at all or He would lose his infiniteness completely.  Imagine an infinitely long piece of yarn. Now try to imagine a piece of yarn one inch longer (or shorter) than the infinitely long piece. You can’t. It destroys the whole concept of infinity. If we admit God is infinite and that infinity is unlimited then that rock is never possible since a rock’s dimensions are limited; even if we define the dimensions of the rock as infinite the infinity of the rock cannot be greater than infinity of God since infinity can never be surpassed, not even by another infinity. If the rock is too big for God to lift then we are saying that infinity could have a limit (thereby changing the entire definition of infinity).I think a bolder rephrasing of this question would be “if God is all-powerful can He create a god more powerful than Himself?” If we say yes to this question or the main one we not only deny the existence of an all-powerful God, but any possibility of our current concept of infinity.

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3. The question assumes that the label ‘all-powerful’ includes powers which are totally contradictory to the label. In other words omnipotence is infinite power AND no lack of ability (a lack of ability doesnt count as seen in point 1). So after hearing point 1, where you cannot consider absence of ability as prerequisite to being all-powerful a person could ask “then can God give up one of his powers?” The answer would be no, because in giving any power we can conclude that he cannot be all-powerful any longer. He would not, and most importantly COULD NOT do this since it cannot be fit into the quality of being all-powerful ever, since it is contradictory to “omnipotence” in the 1st place. [This quality rule is an extremely useful one and can be used in the first two points if you imagine that God could give up all or any of his powers (a quality of being all-powerful is lacking no power) AND then again if you imagine that God can subtract from his infiniteness and come out with his own finite power (a quality of infinity is being unlimited). They both completely break the quality rules of the words "all-powerful" and "infinite."]

Caught in the everyday hussle…

So I havent’ had much time to explore the Bible and really dive into it cuz I didn’t study or read for my classes - literally for almost 2 weeks now - and now I’m payin for it. But I haven’t forgotten You.

Anyways, I was a bit exhausted this morning and I’m lying down listenin to some music and its on random like always and John Legend comes on. It was Show Me and just lying there it just reminded me that there’s so much we don’t know - kinda hit me where it counts. I thought I’d post a video of the song so if anybody else comes across my blog maybe the song will touch them like it does me. Listen to it if you haven’t heard it especially.

post by metaspyder

This won’t be an attack. Here’s his/her post: 

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So the question is,

“What characteristics would define ‘the worst man’?”

And, if you can define this terrible, terrible man,

“Why would God create an object (the ‘worst man’) just to loathe it?”

Human artists come to love their ‘errors’, regarding them instead as additional strokes in a painting, or chips from a chisel. Where an error serves no purpose, it is absolutely removed. If we, the imperfect, have learned this, then why would a perfect God not take similar steps?

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The only problem is that men are forever in constant creation with their arts directly, while you can say that God created mankind, that he did not physically create me or you, but only the very first beings.

This said, it must only be the result of our human nature that we somehow fell from the pure and innocent state we were in when we were all created. Which would hold up much of the Bible, including that we are responsible for people being exposed to ills that might become obstacles in the way of finding God.

Thsi is all very heavy - but it gives me a work out

A question for the wise

Christians take the Bible for Truth. They say “Don’t question. it is what it is - true.” For the longest time I hated this in them. I hated to be associated with them or to be seen with them. Now I think they might actually be on to something…

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I was reading Wayne Grudem’s “Systematic Theology: An Intro the Biblical Doctrine” and theres a part in the chapter on the authority that comes from scripture and why the Word is Truth. It goes on to say the obvious. These words cannot be “proven to be God’s words.” This is a one-liner that so many people in the world use to refute the possibility of Christianity. They say without proof its just a theory. But this is true of everything we hold and assume to be true in our world and everything surrounding us. We have theories and thoughts and assumptions. Evolution, Marxism, Global Warming. now I don’t necessarily believe that global warming is a myth, or that marxism is all wrong, but these have no real proof. They have theories which are quite possibly nothing but stated relationships of contingency and planned, organized coincidence. Some may be fitting ideas into theories, distorting truth. These theories could be right but I am just using them as possible examples. The real mistakes we are making in this area are more likely dramatically more important. Point being - we fit many things into our cookie-cutter theories and our rigid rational forms.

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But I digress. The next, more important item Grudem pulls up is that by trying to prove God through rational and reason we subordinate God’s words to a higher authority. Now this is where I really got pissed. I thought, “If God gave us all rational thought and good reason why wouldnt he want us to use it??” The more I thought and chewed on it I came to the conclusion that he DOES want us to use it. But this does NOT refute Grudems argument as you’ll see.

 If you’ve read Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance you’ll know who Pirsig is. He was a genius and his capacity for rational thought and philosophy was unparalleled. Theres one part in the book where he’s working out this philosophy through rational and he comes to the conclusion that his old way of doing things isn’t working now. He can’t go back, and going forward does him no good. He finally realizes that instead of doing what is rational, by going forward like he usually does, he must transgress sideways (Mind you this is all a big metaphor in his philosophy).

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When I read the Grudem statement above I admit I was very angry at first. but then it all came together. Maybe we ARE supposed to use our rational to figure things out. But maybe, sometimes, we must use our rational to decide that rational thought and pure reason cannot get us where we want to go, so we must rationally lay down our reason and choose something that might seem irrational, like Pirsig. But, in truth, it is at heart very rational. And this would fit into Grudem’s theory that we cannot subdue God’s words to another authority, placing Him at a lower position.

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This leaves me to find out how I can see that the Bible is the Word of God. I find that there is only one way: to get to know the word, and that is where I am confronted by the Holy Spirit. If the Word is God then he will speak to me according to however the Bible says. I can test and challenge this and someday Truth will be revealed to me. I have not found that out yet though.

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I must say though that now I am inclined to believe that the God of the Bible is the only one who stands a chance in my mind. He is personal, forgiving, and alive not like so many other “gods.” I will finish this with a favorite quote of mine from War and Peace:

“If we admit that human life can be ruled by reason, then all possibility of life is destroyed.”

My first steps…

I know there is God.

Sometimes I can’t put it into words how I know this. A simple sunset, the ocean, or a cool frost coming over the mountains remind me just how beautiful our world is, and how little I have seen. This world did not happen by chance, spontaneous combustion,  or any other sporadic measure. The way our bodies work, how ocean waves careen over rocks so gracefully, and the stars at night all let me know that everything, even the littlest, maybe largely unnoticed, thing has been carefully crafted. I saw the sun rising this morning as I was cooking breakfast and I stood there in awe, just happy to be feeling the warmth from its rays.

And then I am awoken by that fate which is everyman’s fate. We are all dying. One day closer to death I am now, and tomorrow will be another. I am not afraid of death. I always figured that when it was my time it was my time. But lately I have wondered what comes after. I soon came to the conclusion that this life could not be all we have, for whoever created this world and made us into beings full of life, would not give us something just to take it away. Our souls, as Plato conceived in the Republic, are indestructible. We are immortal. Then this was too simple; If we are immortal we can do whatever we want right? No that couldnt be it. God would want us to seek him. some people say this is done by reading the Bible, other by doing good, and some even by being baptized. At first I thought that doing good could be the answer. But then bad men could do good deeds. Then I came to the thought that if our heart is pure we could get in. But you can be a good man with no regard for God at all. Would God allow someone who didnt believe he existed to come into his kingdom? I think not.

So I’m soon led to believe we must all do something, not physical, to be saved - to live eternally in happiness with God. (The reason I believe in two different places for the afterlife is I couldnt believe that God would allow the man who denied the existence of his creator all his life to sit at his right hand side.)

And that is how I get to nearly believing in Christ. I do believe in him and yet I have doubt. Best way to put it is: I believe in Jesus as God’s son, but I have many problems with this Christian theology in general. So, on the verge of saying alltogether that I believe God is savior without being totally honest I find myself challenging these core beliefs, in hope that they will go through the fire and be refined like gold, and the truth revealed to me. This is my story in a nutshell - there is so much more, so much that has influenced me, so many questions I have that I cannot possibly write them all out or even know what all my thoughts are. But this is the gist of the big ones that I do know. This is my story and the beginning of my search for Truth.