I haven’t done a blog post for a while. Part of the reason is that I am now doing podcasts with Edwin Lin. But I also feel that part of the reason was that my blog posts tended to be on the long side and that meant a considerable investment of time and effort, one that I wasn’t always up to. <\/p>\n
I do have a lot of ideas that would be well covered by short posts, so I think I’ll try to write more short posts with the occasional longer post. <\/p>\n
The following is something I already posted on Facebook. I’ve also written it in several other places. It happened to come up recently. <\/p>\n
Recently the following question was raised: “Can God make a rock too heavy for him to lift?” <\/p>\n
I’ve written about this before. Some people see it as a difficulty for the concept of an all-powerful God. But it’s really not that hard. <\/p>\n
The answer is “No.” At first this seems like a paradox. But if you think a bit, you’ll notice that this does not limit God in any concrete (pun not intended) way. God can make a rock of any size, composition, etc. etc. Having made such a rock, he can then lift it. God’s ability to create rocks is unlimited, and his ability to lift rocks is also unlimited. <\/p>\n
The trick is that everything is hidden in syntax and terminology. If you unfold it a little, you get the following: <\/p>\n
God<\/b>: An all-powerful being <\/p>\n
Too heavy to lift<\/b>: a relationship between two entities. This relationship is external to both entities. That is, whether rock X is too heavy to lift by entity Y is not an essential feature of rock X, nor is it an essential feature of entity Y. Neither entity depends on the relationship for its essence. <\/p>\n
To illustrate this, assume that there’s a rock in my backyard that I want to get rid of, but it is too heavy for me to lift. For health-related reasons I decide to take up free weights as an exercise program. After a couple months I go out in the back yard and suddenly I notice that I can lift the rock. I am still the same entity and the rock is still the same rock, but the relationship has changed. (You could argue that I’m not<\/i> the same being, and in one sense that is true, but whether or not I can lift the rock does not affect my essential being, nor does it affect the essential being of the rock.) <\/p>\n
It is important to note that “being too heavy for an all-powerful being to lift” is a contradiction<\/i>. It’s like asking if God can make a square circle. It is a logical impossibility and therefore meaningless. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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