Can God do anything? If the answer is "yes", can he create a rock heavier than he can lift? (If the answer is "yes", then he really can't do everything. How do you explain this?)
2007-05-26 18:42:20 · 38 answers · asked by sky 2 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
God cannot do what isn't actually possible to be done, like creating a two-sided triangle, or a married bachelor. just because words can be strung together this way does not make the impossible possible - these things are contradictions, they are truly impossible in reality. now..a rock would have to be infinitely large to defeat an infinite amount of lifting power. but an infinite rock is a contradiction since material objects cannot be infinite. only God is infinite. there cannot be two infinites. so the question is actually asking if God can make a contradiction - which he cannot. He can't lie or deny himself because of his nature and the nature of reality itself.
2007-05-26 18:45:24 · answer #1 · answered by Silver 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think a day and a half into my arrival at Yahoo Answers, a year and a half ago, I first saw this question, and its variants... can God make a rock so big that.... can God make a taco so hot that... can God shoot a hamster out of a cannon so fast that... and all the other things that Y!A newbies find and copy/paste off the Internet.
The idea is to ask a nonsense question, and then insist on God's ability to satisfy the nonsense, like make 1 + 1 to equal three. Of course this is a ridiculous and facile test, demanding that there be a response to this false idea of God's transcendence that has him contorting into an Escher drawing. As Benedict XVI says, "Not to act with [reason] is contrary to God's nature."
However, what the many askers of this question forget is to ask a nonsense question that also confounds the trinity (for Christians at least.) This one doesn't.
In our case, we conceive of God the Father making a rock so big that God the Son could not lift it using natural means (remember that in Christian theology, Jesus is not just fully divine, but also fully human.)
So yes - God can create rock heavier than he can lift, without it actually being a paradox to the nonsense question.
2007-05-26 18:58:13 · answer #2 · answered by evolver 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God can do anything. He is omnipotent. Otherwise He would not be God. But God is not a God of contradictions. So he creates everything and anything He creates, He can move no matter how heavy. Otherwise, He isn't God, but He is, so He can move all rocks that He creates. He is all powerful and almighty. He can also create a rock heavier than He can lift. All He has to do is create it and decide not to lift it, but He is God so He can still lift this rock no matter how heavy. You can't limit what God can do and can't do. As they said He is infinitely strong, powerful and almighty.
2007-05-27 22:56:01 · answer #3 · answered by hope 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I think the answer to this question is no he cannot create a rock heavier than he can lift. He has said numerous times that he is the highest being/thing through eternity and that he is always the same. He has also said that eternity hinges on his word and that he cannot lie. So, no, he cannot because he cannot go back on his word. It is kind of like a fish not being able to breathe air.
The idea that "God can do anything" is ignorant of God as a person. He CANNOT lie, he CANNOT sin. These for him are impossibilities. He doesn't say that he "will not lie" but "cannot lie."
2007-05-26 18:48:19 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is clever. He knows full well that He can create a rock too heavy for Him to lift. The best part, though, is that He can also create a crane that can.
The bigger question is whether you believe this. Have faith. Even if you don't believe, it's a good feeling to doubt yourself into thinking heaven might exist. Why else would you ask?
When you die, you might go to heaven, and you might not. You're not worried about hell, though, are you?
How's your faith now?
2007-05-26 18:53:07 · answer #5 · answered by mrtnlu 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
I actually have a little paradox for that.
If god can do anything that means he create something he can't do. For example, god could create a stone that he cannot lift, which would be something he cannot do.
2014-08-17 08:06:21 · answer #6 · answered by ? 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is capable of doing whatever He wants, but God has to follow a law also. He can't just go off and do ridiculous things and interfere with things when he has to let others make decisions. There are laws and rules that God has to live by and if He didn't, he would cease to be God. Just like a king has to abide by the laws that he makes, so does God.
God gets his power through the priesthood and he can control every molecule of this earth.
Beverly
2007-05-26 18:48:52 · answer #7 · answered by Beverly 2 · 0⤊ 1⤋
Congratulations! You are the 3,000th person to post this inane question. If He couldn't lift it, He wouldn't be omnipotent, and therefore wouldn't be God. So you are really asking if God can create a situation where He is not God. NO! No such situation can exist!
2007-05-26 18:46:22 · answer #8 · answered by PaulCyp 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
yes god can make things happen i pray to god all the time before i go to sleep like once i prayed to god that i would see the guy i like when id be at my niebors house and then the next day i seen the dude even though it waz like 5 seconds longbut god cant create a rock that he cant pick becuz he can pick up anything unless he really wanted to make a rock he cant pick upask god himself one day
2007-05-26 19:02:08 · answer #9 · answered by *vanilla 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Everyone thinks they can try and outsmart God but what happens at the time of death. He outsmarts you. The answer to this question is beyond your puney brain. Yes and no. Sometimes Gods greatness is beyond the human mind.
2007-05-26 18:53:34 · answer #10 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋