Can GOD create a rock that is too heavy for Him to lift?

Question

For those who say no -- GOD can create anything

For those who say yes -- GOD can do anything



im soooo confused!

Answer 1

God is infinitely powerful, but that doesn't mean He can do absolutely anything.. for example, God could not allow mankind to enter Heaven without sending His son to die for our sins.. since Heaven is perfect, if He let sinful beings into Heaven, it would make Heaven imperfect..

another example is that God wants us all to love Him, but He also wants us to have free will.. God could not force us to love Him and give us free will at the same time, so that was something else God could not do..

God could disentegrate the entire universe in the blink of an eye, but He cannot force you to love Him and give you free will at the same time.. so even though God is infintely powerful, it would seem that there are some things that even He cannot do.. so to answer your question, no God could not create a rock that would be to heavy for Him to lift because the rock would have to be larger than infinity, if such a thing were possible..

Answer 2

This question presumes God, if he exists, is both omnipotent and omniscient. Unfortunately, it is logically imposiible to be both or either.

Your example shows that, excluding the invocation of faith, an entity cannot do literally anything, for then it could just do something that prevented it from doing another thing. Also, a being cannot be omnipotent and omniscient. An omniscient being can predict everything that will happen, thus it cannot change some future occurence and is not omnipotent, and if it can it is not omniscient. If the being does change some future occurence under the pretense that it knew it would change it, it really didn't change it, for it would have happened all along.

So, if God exists (I suspect he does not), he cannot be omnipotent or omniscient. A religious person rationalizing belief in God would have to admit that God could perhaps do extremely powerful things, but not anything. And he could reasonably predict things, but not know everything that will, did, and is happening. Its too bad that this does not fit the traditional monotheistic version of a god.

Answer 3

It seems that questions such as these challenge the omniscience or omnipotence of God, but I think the answer is this. No, God cannot create a rock that is too heavy for him to lift, but it is not because God is not omnipotent, it is because it would be illogical to do so. There are certain things that God cannot do, he cannot make it rain and not rain at the same time and the same place because this condition is illogical (inconsistent), but these things do not call into question her omnipotence.

Another way to think about omnipotence is the notion that God can do anything logical and she can know anything logical and be omniscient, but she cannot do or know that which is illogical.

Of course, the bigger question is whether God exists. Remember, if we can show that God cannot be omniscient or omnipotent, we have not shown that she does not exist, we have only shown that she does not maintain these qualities.

Answer 4

That's like asking if God can do something without using His God-ness. But... Many Christians believe in the Trinity, the idea of God being three in one. We might could imagine the collective God placing limitations on one third of Himself, and then creating a rock too heavy for that Third. Philippians 2:6-7 may be seen to be describing Christ as that self-limited Third.

Answer 5

No he cannot. It is a paradox that disproves omnipotence. If God can create a rock too heavy that he cannot lift it, then their is something he is strong enough not to lift. If he can make himself strong enough then to lift it (or automatically becomes as I saw in a previous answer) then he is incapable of making a rock that heavy. Either way, God loses and the laws of reality win.

It is also worthy to note that if God is real, then in must exist in reality. Yet if all of reality didn't exist until God created it, then where did God exist? It must have existed in a un-reality, making God unreal. If God is unreal, how did he create reality?

Answer 6

Yes, God can create anything
No, God can do anything
.... so both. not in the sense of ignorance.
think about it: God, made homo sapiens in the form of God-self. (one could interprit this to mean that god bestowed upon us the most god-like essence, free will. God can create and do anything... God can choose not to lift the rock.
And who said God should be confined to the actions and descriptions that so limit even ourselves?! God is omnipotent. God is everything. We are tiny pieces of God.... God is the rock, god is the man trying to lift it, god is the bug living underneath it. God doesn't have to lift the rock, God is the rock.
God can do all.
God can create all.
God IS all.

Answer 7

No! It's impossible. If God created the rock in the first place then he can just as easily lift it or destroy it. Anything is possible with God

Answer 8

He created mankind, too heavy to lift up to heaven, and He must bleed to do so. Here He manifests weakness towards goodness. Therefore if He so chose to create a rock heavy enough for Him to lift, He would do so out of goodness and allow the rock to possess 'freewill.' He would choose to be weak and suffer in exchange for good cause and maybe even for our silly curiosity. Yahoo to all!!!

Answer 9

lol, that is a good question. By not being able to create the rock means he can't really do everything...but then by creating the rock and not being able to lift it would mean the same thing.

Let me think on my answer for a minute and I'll get back to you..

Answer 10

The PERFECT question!!!

Soooo easy for an Atheist.
Soooo impossible for a Christian.

Since there is no God so your question is moot.

You get a thumbs up, and I don't hand them out like candy. Feel free to guess my religious standing if you like.