Is the idea of an all powerful God a sensible one?

Question

For example, a persone beleives their God is omnipotent. This means he can do everything he wishes.

say he wishes to create a stone. one so large he cannot lift it.

if he cannot create a stone this large, how can he be omnipotent?

but if he can produce a stone so large, he then cant lift it, and is therefore not omnipotent?

so can an omnipotent God really exist?

for sake of argument, assume i mean omnipotent being, as opposed to a god or God. that should keep religion out of it.

Answer 1

As C.S. Lewis states in "The Problem of Pain," an omnipotent being is simply one who can do anything it is possible to do. By definition, no one can do the impossible, so God's inability to do so in no way limits his omnipotence.

Answer 2

Omnipotence means all-powerful, so if God is all-powerful, he can do anything that is possible. But creating a stone so large that He can't lift it is not a possibility.

Suppose He tried to make a stone too big to lift. Lets say the first stone weighed a million tons. But since he is omnipotent, he could lift it. So the next stone is twice as big, but that is not big enough. Eventually he would create an infinite stone, but an infinite stone would take up all space and there would be no where to lift it.

This is similar to a 3 sided square. A square by definition has 4 sides, so it cannot be done.

The flaw is in the question, not in the issue of an omnipotent God.

Answer 3

You put God in your question then say you want to keep God out of it???

Do you mean is the idea a logical one?
No it is not for our logic is shaped and bound by what we know and can prove. Belief is another thing altogether.
I believe that there are no omnipotent beings except for God. But God may not be what or whom we suppose Him to be.

You have created a question you cannot answer. (like the unliftable stone)
When you find the answer you will lift the stone.

However you are not omnipotent.

Answer 4

I think it'd be feasible... the wordplay you employ is nice too, of course, not that I haven't seen it before.

Everything is, all at the same time... and no god can be seperate from that. Instead of thinking about an all-powerful creator or individual, I'd like to think of 'omnipotence' as the sum of all the energy out there, continually transferring but never being cancelled out at any point. When you look at it that way, it seems a lot bigger than these mythological comic book images some religious discourses bring to mind.

What about omnipresence? God is everywhere, but apart? If God is everywhere, it must be together with things, a kind of eternal perceiver, both in and of the universe, a great sentient blob. I don't necessarily go with that, but it suits me more than a dispassionate god... energy tends to act in fairly predictable ways... well, we can predict it will act in a chaotic fashion, but that's a start.

Anyhow, I'm going to miss my Tai Chi class if I hypothesise like this any longer... catch you later...

Answer 5

An omnipotent God could make a stone too big for Him to lift, then break it in half and lift the halves separately!

An omnipotent God could make a stone too big for Him to lift, then get stronger and be able to lift it!

An omnipotent God could make a stone too big for Him to lift, then shrink it and put it in His pocket!

Who are we to put limitations on an omnipotent God, or to say that these solutions are not permitted...?

To say "too big to lift" implies that God is actually STANDING 'somewhere'. Where is He standing...? Has He made a planet to stand on...? If so, is that planet not larger than the rock He is trying to lift...? Should He not be trying to lift the planet...? Should He not put His feet on the rock and his hands on the planet and try to push them apart that way....?

The problem lies not in God's omnipotent power, but with our limited viewpoint, our ability to formulate reasonable questions and to pose them.

(By the way, do you see how the reasoning of the previous question about the rock leads to images of God holding the earth and the sky separated...? Did you think that the ancient Greeks never dealt with questions such as these...? This is obviously the line of thought which led to the myth of Atlas holding up the sky.)

The idea of an all powerful God is much more sensible than a lot of little gods, each with their own assigned duties and limitations.

(For purposes of this discussion, I do not insist on all powerful meaning infinite, just more powerful than everybody else put together.)

A pre-existing, all-powerful God seems the only way of resolving the deep questions of good and evil, of conscious awareness, of suffering and of meaningfulness.

Answer 6

What an interesting question. An omnipotent God makes no sense to me at all. In fact the whole idea of a Supreme Being makes no sense to me. What is the point?

Answer 7

I suppose if there was an omnipotent God in existence, he would be able to lift anything he wished. There would be no stone too heavy.

Answer 8

ok so this omnipotent being, makes this stone that he cannot lift. until he actually attempts to lift it, it will be a stone that he cannot lift, so he has fulfilled one of the specifications. but then bcos he is omnipotent, as soon as he attempts to lift it, he can. bt during tht period where he made the stone and tries to lift it, it can exist in a state where it is too big even for this being to lift.

since he is omnipotent he can adapt to lift it, bt at some point it was unliftable, and tht intervening period can b as long as one likes it to b.

make ne sense?

therefore it seems to me that an omnipotent being can exist...but our understanding is limited due to our limited knowledge

;)

Answer 9

Thanx for this most important question.
I often times thought about the same thing and came to a conclusion, there couldn be. I was wrong because I was ignorant still but I thought I knew.

This world was created for you and for me and all other things living here with us. Begin to think how the world came to be and how it was created, and who created the one who created it, I promise you, it will take all your life to nowhere.
Man builds cars and many more extraordinary things that help us live comfortably. No matter what we may achieve, all sources come from the earth. When you buy your car, it is then up to you to maintain it. For this reason, you go to Machanics and sometimes you try to repair yourself. It isn't that there is not the Maker of the your car.

Omnipotent God is true and he sits in his throne. something tells me, though I don't deserve, to tell you, you will see and feel his truth after you have read this, so that you can also answer someone who stil searches. Amen

Answer 10

This example of the stone is the demonstration of Emil Cioran (french writer but native romanian) of the non-omipotency of god. In original ''god is not omnipotent because he can not outdo himself''. I would say that your interpretation is a sophysm. The core theme here is about the nature of god and this outdoes every human being.
You can not force god or any idea about god into o logical system. If it helps I reccomend you the writings of Nicolai Berdiaev ''Spirit and Freedom'' and Vladimir Lossky '' The seeing of the face of God''.