Can God make a rock so heave He can't pick it up?

Question

If he can't, then mean He isn't all-powerful. If he can, then there's something he can't do, which is pick up that rock - so again, he isn't all-powerful.

Give it your best shot, and let the justifications begin.

Okay, I can see the question isn't being fully read. Try again:

EITHER He can't make the rock that He can't pick up,

OR He can't pick up the rock He specifically made to be too heavy for him to pick up.

One or the other. Not both. If he does one, it negates the other. So you tell me - where does all this "all-powerful" stuff come from?

Fair enough - my bad:

"Can God make a rock so HEAVY He can't pick it up?"

Spelling errors aside, for such a stupid question no one seems to be able to reconcile the two outcomes.

Answer 1

There is no God. There is no conflict.

To accept the idea of an omnipotent "God", one must believe that it is in some way "possible" for an entity to act in contradiction to it's nature. In a universe containing an omnipotent being, any action would be open to any entity at any time upon the bidding of "God". Causality would be a sham, and rational explination would crumble.

It is into this chaotic world that one must plunge if one wishes to speak of "God" as omnipotent; a universe without identity, a universe of the unintelligible and the unknowable - a Walt Disney wonderland where pumpkins can turn into coaches, oranges into spaceships and women into pillars of salt.

Answer 2

This question is a classic straw man that has most Christians looking like the proverbial deer in the headlights. At best it challenges God’s omnipotence. At worst it undermines his existence.

First there is a problem with the premise of the question. While it is true that God can do anything that is consistent with His nature, it is absurd that he can do everything. God cannot lie (Hebrews 6:18); he cannot be tempted (James 1:13); and he cannot cease to exist (Psalm 102:25-27).

Furthermore, just as it is impossible to make a one-sided triangle, so it is impossible to make a rock too heavy to be moved. What an all-powerful God can create he can obviously move. Put another way, God can do everything that is logically possible.

Finally, you should note that a wide variety of similar questions are raised to undermine the Christian view of God. Thus it is crucial that Christians learn to question the question rather than assuming the question is valid.

From The Bible Answer Book by Hank Hanegraaff www.equip.org

Answer 3

Do you seek a different answers than those provided by Aquinas and Descartes? People have tackled this old chestnut for hundreds of years. Do you have some new twist or bit of originality you wanted to add?

Personally, I liked the "Can God Make a Sandwich so Big Even He Can't Eat it Twist" last week. It was original anyway.

Or how about can God make 3.7 + 9.2 X 3.14 = 2. Or maybe, God's omnipotence is that he can do anything logically possible. God can do anything that power can accomplish so he cannot as a matter of definition do things that power cannot accomplish such as make a square circle.

Never mind,

You've come up with an original and clever problem. We are all impressed.

Answer 4

Had Allah, the Glorious been constrained along with being omnipotent, then it would have been possible, but The Almighty Allahs essence and attributes have no contrariety.
Just as, Allah is All Knowing and not ignorant; in the same way Allah is Omnipotent and not constrained or helpless.
It should be remembered that he whose ability has an extreme, due to the limit ness of its ability it can be a helpless and dependent creature(creation) but not the creator i.e. God.
Allahs introduction i.e. Tauheed (Oneness of Allah) is that there is nothing like Allah and Allah, The All Capable is Omnipotent and The Absolute Creator.
Had Allah been such, so as to make a stone which Allah could not lift, Allah would have been considered as creation, rather than the creator and it would not have been valid to call Allah Omnipotent and The Absolute Creator.
But, praise belongs to Allah only (Al-Hamd-o-Lillah) our Lord has, by bringing everything into existence and creating this vast universe told us that our Lords capability has no limit due to which God can be casted as a dependent and helpless creation on any point.
Allah, ‘The Omnipotent’ is All Capable and with Gods All Capability God is sovereign over everything.”

Answer 5

Just as omniscience does not imply the ability to know that which is fundamentally unknowable, omnipotence does not imply the ability to do the undoable.

First of all, God does not exist in the space-time continuum. He is existential and infinite. He exists outside of space and time. So in that perspective, you can see that the question is nonsensical on its face.

Second of all, God created time, space and all physical reality. The time-space continuum is a finite creation compared to a God who is infinite. Therefore you can see that God cannot create a rock so heavy that he can't lift it because 1) God is not a physical being, 2) God is infinite, 3) omnipotence does not imply the ability to do the undoable.

God can't make a square that is round or a triangle with 4 sides because those things are undoable, just as is the silly premise of creating a rock he cannot lift.

Answer 6

Picking up a rock is relative. You are not really picking up a rock, you are overcoming the gravitational pull between two objects, the rock and the earth. The gravitational pull of the earth is greatest when you are next to it, but not out in outer space. At any given place in space, any rock has a gravitational pull toward itself. It can attract space dust, and depending on your size and its size, maybe you. Any rock, regardless of its size - pebble to asteroid to the moon - has no weight in space, but it does have mass.

Your attempt to provoke a serious argument is poor at best.

Trying to to mix science and theology, as with most attempts, to prove an unprovable point is a demonstration of absolute ignorance of both theology and science.

Pay more attention in science class and pay more attention in what ever religious gatherings you attend.

Edit:
OKAY - YOU WANT THE SHORT ANSWER??

NO!!

GET A LIFE!! Find something more worthwhile to argue about!

EDIT #2:

Your argument is fundamentally flawed. Your “chicken or the egg” type analogy of rocks, sandwiches, or duck billed platypuses for that matter, is circular. For every argument – there is a counter argument. There is no winner there is no loser. As I said, using physical examples for spiritual arguments never works. Never put thy Lord and God “to the test”.

Bottom line:

There is nothing God can do that he cannot un-do.

Accept this concept without proof (dogma) or reject it. It cannot be physically proven either way.

Answer 7

Congratulations! You are the 5,000th person to post this inane question! The answer is NO! If He couldn't lift it He would not be God. Therefore the question is really asking whether God can create a situation in which He is not God! NO! NO! NO! His inability to create such a situation has nothing to do with His being all-powerful. It has to do with His divine nature. God cannot do something which violates His very nature as God.

Answer 8

That doesn't make any sense it it like asking if God can make a sperical cube. A spherical cube is an oxymoron. You aren't describing anything when you say that there is a rock so hevy an omnipotent being can't lift.

But there are things which I can do that God can't, such as learn something, or improve, but that is only because I am flawed, whereas God isn't.

Answer 9

You deserve 10 points for asking such an original question. While you were typing this question you should have noticed the block that came up underneath where the same question has been asked numerous times. Why don't you read some of those responses and save your five points for a real question.

Answer 10

A very simple and atrue answer is that we r humans no doubt a very inteeligent creation of God but still a creation! how dare u challenge u'r own creator to do anything did u forget while typing this question that u r answerable to u'r god on the day of resurrection on the day of jugdment how can u challenge the creator of this universe and zillionz of galaxies to do anything.
a very simple thing is that we can not know the very deepsecrets of the power of God.Infront of the Wisdom of allah our knowledfe is nothing and we can not raise anysuch questions for lord for our creator and we do not have the right to do so.
there is no doubt that only that person can raise such a question for god who does not have a firm believe in god and whose faith is weak like a spider web O U ! O QUESTIONER U DO NOT HAVE A FIRM BELIEVE IN GOD AND U'R FAITH IS WEAKER THAN A SPIDERWEB SO THEREIN U'R HEART COME SUCH REBELIOUS QUESTION ABOUT THE CREATOR'THE LORD THE GOD OF EVERY THING.

Answer 11

Of course. You're pretty funny, but God can make himself human and not be separate from Himself, since He is not bound by space-time. So, as creator, he make make a rock, heavier than his body mass as a human. While He could lift the rock if He chose to, He can ultimately decide to not pick up the rock due to its heaviness.

Its a matter of choice, not ability