Think carefully, we had a whole semster to think about this one before answering.
I am interested in your answers, funny or otherwise.
2007-08-30 05:57:44 · 36 answers · asked by spidertiger440 6 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I'm Agnostic.
2007-08-30 06:00:13 · answer #1 · answered by sinistral_leo 2 · 2⤊ 2⤋
A whole semester? This was a question taught in school?!? WTF? How is this in any way relevant to anything? I think the real question is, could god create a society that can simultaneously spend all its time thinking about BS paradoxes, train its children in worthless knowledge fabricated before the modern mental health care system while still retaining a high standard of living?
The answer is no (see Middle Ages). Stop wasting your life, for the love of god, please. Are you really happy just being a parasite? Oh you love modern convenience, health care, technology, but you just can't be bothered to help maintain any of it. You want to spend your time in "contemplation" about the "higher questions". In truth, you're just running away from reality and being a lazy git. Do something useful, I beg you, something that actually helps people. And, no, telling people what is and isn't moral in your considered opinion is not helpful in any way whatsoever to anybody. Morality is for retarded people who can't understand ramifications clearly. If that's your bend, why not study medicine so that you can actually help the retarded in better, more scientific manner.
People like you are simply ungrateful. You know, a few things have happened in the last 2007 years that didn't involve Christ or God or churches. Christ may have died for some fishy abstract concept like sin, but Albert Sabin has kept me from getting polio and frankly I'm a hundred times more grateful to him.
Sigh, it's no use. You're probably gone already. It's just so much easier to be lazy and assume that everything important takes place in some "higher realm" (i.e. inside your own head).
2007-08-30 06:10:22 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
It is not power that would enable a supreme being to create such an object, but cunning resourcefulness.
Just the same, monotheists assume many things about this Supreme Being in the absense of an appreciable understanding of the entire universe. Seems a bit counter-intuitive; to presume to know so much about the Creator (his intentions, his plan for our individual lives, his specific guidelines for our personal behavior) and so very little about his entire creation--not just little planet Earth. To further presume that God is so powerful that he could move all things suggests that his limitation lies in His creativitity. In other words, assuming He's incapable of creating such an object too heavy to move Himself, only points to a limitation in His astuteness.
In short, your question boils down to whether or not God has limitations. And I believe that the answer must be affirmative. In fact, your question implies as much. His power implies a limitation of character, of either strength (as we understand this concept) or of intelligence.
Taken one step farther, to suggest that I am capable of something the Supreme Being is incapable of (other than the unintentional commission of an error), tells me we're walking down the wrong path. Indeed, even I can create such an object, AND imagine a being more powerful than man, can God?
You bet he can! Assuming, of course, he exists.
2007-08-30 06:22:54 · answer #3 · answered by el_dormilon 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Like us as the unity of various personalities, God may exist as a plurality wrapped within a singularity. Is it not possible for him to both make and not make such an item as well as both be able to move and not be able to move such a thing. To attempt to understand such a Being through the scope of our own cognitive abilities is to be as if an ant is to give its take on the limitations and abilities of a human.
The question is an old paradox highlighting the limitations of an all powerful God, and, as paradox (inconsistent structure), it seems to function well; however, it does not so much undermind God but rather force a reconceptualization of such a deity. For example, the paradox is no paradox if the conceptualization of God is not a singularity but rather a pantheistic view of such entity. And the question has no import for an atheist since it asks him/her to accept--even temporarily--a Being that he/she does not conceive as existent (like asking how many legs does a Jabberwalky have?).
2007-08-30 06:17:57 · answer #4 · answered by Think 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
edit* (typo)
Yes, but only if he doesn't WANT to be moved.
I think the original question goes "if God is omnipotent, can he create a rock that is so heavy that not even he can lift it?"
It's a question of duality; imagine yourself being 16 years old again; now imagine that you have traveled back in time and have the opportunity to have those years over again. Now imagine that you can erase your memory of being however old you are now and your memories of the future. So now you really would be 16 years old again but you would still be 20/30/40 years old (or whatever) and you would unconsciously have the option to return to that state. Your memories are still there, but they are in your unconscious mind and you have the option to remember or not remember them.
In much the same way, if God IS the rock, then he would essentially be a plural entity, even though he would still be singular.
2007-08-30 06:15:01 · answer #5 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
Mr. Aristotle wrote that something can not exist and not exist at the same time.
If an all powerful God made something so heavy that the God could not move, it would be a case of an all powerful God not being powerful enough. Therefore not all powerful.
2007-08-30 06:25:09 · answer #6 · answered by OldGringo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
According to the bible (Isaiah chapter 40), we can conclude that God made all physical things from his abundant energy. Einstein confirms the relationship between matter and energy in E=MC2.
However per human nature, the question assumes that there must be limits. God is limitless in power just as he is limitless in the stream of time - never having a beginning or an end.
2007-08-30 06:16:15 · answer #7 · answered by TeeDawg 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think the term GOD needes to be less personified. When you take human like qualities out of the equation you are left with energy. And God is simply infinite energy. a bit of push here, pulls elsewhere, all things require some form of energy, and release some form of energy, so to say that Man was created in gods image, could be a misunderstanding of the fact that we really are made of the same stuff acting in different ways.
Universally, speaking, all things move...even if seemingly infinitely slow. So, no, he, it, they, whatever couldn't make somethign so large it would be unmovable.
2007-08-30 06:07:00 · answer #8 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
God is Omnipotent, omniscient and omnipresent. With these characteristics He's too wise to use His time and power in useless things.
However, considering the question: NO
GOD is no more than HIS power, because he is POWER. He cannot create things more than what He is (sounds he is limited but no), because He is greater than anything.
I believe God can create objects beyond measure, and everything, He can move. God is not created, anything else is formed and fashioned. Which means He has and is in control of everything.
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There is only one thing in this universe He cannot control directly (but He can only influence), that is our choices in life. He loved mankind so much, that He gave us the freedom to choose and make decisions. Sadly, look at the world now...
We need grace and mercy, and that is through his Son, Jesus Christ. (John 3:16)
2007-08-30 07:14:35 · answer #9 · answered by rotringboy_17 2 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Lot of opinion here, but the question it not answerable.
If you go to any credible expert on religion, you will find that there is something referred to as "holy mysteries" which, in a nutshell, means that human beings can not find out or comprehend all things.
This is one of them.
If you want to get a true and definite answer to this question, you'll just have to ask God.
It's discouraging to see all of these answers from people that think they are qualified to comment on what God can do.
It says a lot about what is wrong with our world.
Best Wishes.
2007-08-30 06:13:02 · answer #10 · answered by james p 5 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Even God can't escape the confines of logic. He's either all powerful or he's not. One of the requirements of being "God" is being all powerful. This question seems to throw a wrench in the works for the existence of an all powerful God.
Here, let me say "all powerful" one more time.
2007-08-30 06:43:32 · answer #11 · answered by Comancheria 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋