Can God do anything?

Question

God can do anything right? He can do ANYTHING he wants, when he wants, how he wants, right? Can God make a rock or stone so large, even he cannot physically move it?

1. Either he cannot make the rock.
2. If he can make the rock, he cannot physically move it.

God cannot do everything.

Oh, and none of the "he can speak it to move" stuff, I'm talking about physical movement.

You are all rewording the question and redefining what is in the question. It is very simple. A rock, can he move it. How is that complicated? It's not a question of whether or not he would want to, it is if he COULD. It is a philosophical question.

Answer 1

Your observations misunderstand the proper, formal understanding of the concept of omnipotence.

The philosophical rationale is that a supreme being, God, cannot act in an illogical manner with respect to that being's divine and perfect attributes. Hence, God cannot make a rock so big that He could not move it, nor could God do anything that would be a logical contradiction to His divine nature.

Omnipotence means God can do everything **that is possible** within the boundaries of a supreme being. Omnipotence doesn’t mean that God can do anything. The concept of omnipotence has to do with power, not ability per se. In fact, there are many things God can’t do, for example,

- God can’t make square circles.

- God cannot lie.

- God is perfectly Good and can only do Good, therefore God cannot create nor do evil.

- What God has created in His image, God cannot annihilate (to erase from existence, to destroy completely).

- God cannot create a morally free creature that couldn’t choose evil or the creature would not be morally free to choose.

None of these, though, have to do with power. Instead, they are logically contradictory, and therefore contrary to God’s rational nature.

Answer 2

This question is null. You have arranged the definitions in a way that is meaningless. Can you make a square circle? Of course not, because by definition a circle is round. If it was square, it would cease being a circle.

When people talk about God, the usual implication is that God is without limitations. Yet we know that everything else in the created universe has limitations. So when you suppose a rock so large that God cannot move it, you are assuming a rock that infinite power cannot budge. Such a rock would have to be infinitely large, which we know is an impossibility to begin with. The fact that a physical object BY DEFINITION has limitations, does not assume that we can impose limitations on God. A false argument from the get-go.

Answer 3

Been reading the atheist web pages have we? As noted The Paradox of the Stone has been around for centuries. So you are hardly being novel. Sorry to bust your bubble.

Anyway, here for the umteenth time is an answer to

THE PARADOX OF THE STONE

Problems With the Paradox of the Stone
Although this simple argument may appear compelling at first glance, there are some fundamental problems with it. Before identifying these problems, however, it is necessary to make clear what is meant by “omnipotence”.

Christian philosophers have understood omnipotence in different ways. René Descartes though of omnipotence as the ability to do absolutely anything. According to Descartes, God can do the logically impossible; he can make square circles, and he can make 2 + 2 = 5.

Thomas Aquinas had a narrower conception of omnipotence. According to Aquinas, God is able to do anything possible; he can part the red sea, and he can restore the dead to life, but he cannot violate the laws of logic and mathematics in the way that Descartes thought that he could.

If Descartes’ conception of omnipotence is correct, then any attempt to disprove God’s existence using logic is hopeless. If God can do the logically impossible, then he can both create a stone so heavy that he cannot lift it, and lift it, and so can do all things. Yes, there’s a contradiction in this, but so what? God can, on this understanding of omnipotence, make contradictions true.

Descartes’ understanding of omnipotence therefore doesn’t seem to be vulnerable to the paradox of the stone. Descartes can answer the question Yes without compromising divine omnipotence.

Aquinas’ understanding of omnipotence, which is more popular than that of Descartes, also survives the paradox of the stone. For if God exists then he is a being that can lift all stones. A stone that is so heavy that God cannot lift it is therefore an impossible object. According to Aquinas’ understanding of omnipotence, remember, God is able to do anything possible, but not anything impossible, and creating a stone that God cannot lift is something impossible.

Aquinas can therefore answer the question No without compromising divine omnipotence.

The paradox of the stone, then, can be resolved; it fails to show that there is an incoherence in the theistic conception of God, and so fails to demonstrate that God does not exist.

Oh... and btw you might want to check out Pascal's Wager while you are on your knowledge quest.

Answer 4

Can God make a potato that is not a potato? Of course not, but do you think that that would diminish him in any way? Please read the linked page with article titled "Is the Christian God Logical?" which I have included and realize that it does not compliment your God to attribute impossible contradictory characteristics to him. You can love God 'til the cows come home without having to turn him into an enormous ball of confusion and self-contradiction. It's not a disrespectful page, just some very obvious reasoning. Please read it with an open mind. There's even a link there about the heavy rock question that you've asked and why it makes no sense even to consider.

Answer 5

Yes he could move the rock because God has no limits the rock couldn't be big enough or heavy enough at any point to where he could not lift it because it is created, the created cannot surpass the creator therefore the rock cannot overpower God unless he allows it to. He could theoretically make it so that he could not move it but if he did then he could just as easily make it physically moveable again but seeing as God is suppose to be infinitely powerful more than likely he could move it no matter what

Answer 6

God can do anything, he created the Heavens & the earth and everything that is in it, even a big rock. He gives us our food. You can say "No, the farmers do", but the farmers has some help from God. He created man, helped bring you into this world, he can take you out. God is love, but he hates hate. In six days God created the Heavens and the earth and everything that is in it. On the Sabbath day, God rested. Without God, we wouldn't be here, no Heavens, no earth. Think it over.

Answer 7

Every rock, tree, mountain.. atom, all matter (and we are only talking about the physical realm here, not to mention the spiritual realm) is subject to Him. So yes, I suppose there would be no rock he could not move - hence he can do anything - you are applying an earthly concept of limits and bounds on an infinite God.

Answer 8

There are things God cannot do.
He cannot lie. Titus 1:2.
God chooses to be limited by righteousness and justice.
He refuses to break those limits.
As respects making a rock so heavy He cannot move it......God would say to you:
"Please move up to the next level .....or 7"

Answer 9

it is not part of the power of Allaah that He is able to create a rock that He is unable to move, because everything that Allaah creates He is able to move, but the fact that it is impossible for the power of Allaah to be connected to the creation of this supposed rock does not indicate that He is lacking in power. Rather – on the contrary – it is indicative of His complete power, because this question of yours is like asking: Can Allaah be unable to do something that may be rationally possible? No doubt, if we say no, this does not mean that the power of Allaah is limited, rather it is an affirmation of the completeness of His power, because not being incapable means having power. If we say that Allaah cannot be unaware of or forget anything, saying that does not mean that He is incapable or is lacking, rather it is an affirmation of His perfection and complete power and knowledge.

Answer 10

He moved the big boulder that was in front of Jesus's tomb. That's been done already.

**Also, Satan posed this same question with Jesus by telling Him to throw Himself down and since He's God, the Angels will take care of Him.

Jesus's response was Do not Tempt the Lord Your God. So that is my same response to you.