Can God Create a Rock too heavy for Him to Lift?
By Brian D. Wilson
Many of us have heard the line about whether or not it is possible for God to make a rock too heavy for Him to lift. It is intended to pose an unsolvable conundrum to the three great monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Monotheism states that God is omnipotent (possessing all power). So if God has the power to do all things, and certainly creating a rock is something, then God should indeed be able to create a rock too heavy for Him to lift. However if He did so He would no longer be omnipotent, for how can God be all powerful and yet be unable to lift the rock He just created. Yet it is only Monotheism that must wrestle with this issue.
Polytheists (those who believe in many gods) don’t have this problem. The Greek gods share power, and no god ever possesses all power. Not even Zeus. In fact Zeus must be careful how he deals with the other gods since the wrong political move may cause a war that spills over onto Man’s tiny Earth. Polytheists say that Zeus cannot make such a rock, not because Zeus has all power but precisely because he does not.
The answer to this conundrum is not profound, but obvious once you reflect upon it. A category fallacy is unknowingly being committed by those who offer it. They are misunderstanding what power is. Power is an ability to do something, but that is not all it is. Power is always expressed by something, and how that power is expressed depends upon the nature of the some-thing expressing it. One way to understand a thing’s nature is through a term the ancient Greeks called Telos, which just means the function for which a thing was made, its design. Consider a toaster.
A toaster is designed to toast. If a toaster could no longer toast we would say that it lost the only ability (power) for which it was designed, and when compared to other toasters, the damaged one would be less powerful because it no longer possessed a power the others did. Likewise living things, and inanimate objects, have abilities that other creatures and objects do not. Brief cases are not designed to toast, and so in a particular way the brief case lacks a power the toaster does. Lions cannot breath under water as fish do, and so lack that particular ability.
Here I think it would be tempting to say, “Yes but aren’t you making my case as you speak. Isn’t God also lacking an ability, namely the ability to create a rock too heavy for Him to lift?”
This brings us back to our category fallacy mentioned at the outset. God is in a category all by Himself. Being in this category God’s existence excludes the possibility of certain other things from existing. The way the philosophers express this is in a law of Logic called the Law of Non-Contradiction. It simply means (A) cannot be (A) and NOT (-A) at the same time, in the same sense, in the same space, or in the same relationship. I cannot be five-foot two and six feet tall at the same time, neither can I be a married-bachelor.
Likewise, God being the sort of creature He is, excludes the possibility of other things existing. God cannot make a rock too heavy for him to lift because there is no such thing as a category labeled Rocks too heavy for God to lift. Think about it. If there were such a rock then God would not exist. His omnipotence (all power) precludes it. On the other hand, if God does not exist then the challenge is meaningless. God’s inability to create such a rock is actually not an inability because no such rocks exist. It is like saying that a hunter is not the greatest hunter in the world because the hunter failed to shoot a unicorn. Since unicorns do not exist the limitation is falsely applied to the hunter.
In fact there are many things that God cannot do. He cannot lie, He cannot destroy Himself, He cannot make square circles, He cannot make 2 + 2 = 7. These are equally foolish challenges. Lying is a deficit, it is a minus in human nature, not an addition to a creatures moral power. In such a case a person would be asking God to be less than morally perfect (Omni-benevolent).
Square-circles are logical contradictions, as are contradictions in mathematical operations. God cannot make 2 + 2= 7 because there is no Universe which God made where such a sum exists. The laws governing Logic, as well as the contradictions that result from them, flow from God’s nature, they are not above Him. Another way to put it would be to say that if God ever did suddenly cease to exist, then the laws of Logic as well as everything else in the world would also cease to exist. Christian Philosophers and Theologians call this dependence of the Universe upon God’s existence Providential Subsistence.
Before anyone asks any questions of power it is imperative first to ask what power is, who or what is expressing that power, and what categories are involved both of the creature manifesting that power and the type of power. Otherwise we run the risk of making much adu about nothing, in this case making an argument about God that does nothing to challenge the logical soundness of his existence.
By Brian D. Wilson
Many of us have heard the line about whether or not it is possible for God to make a rock too heavy for Him to lift. It is intended to pose an unsolvable conundrum to the three great monotheistic religions Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. Monotheism states that God is omnipotent (possessing all power). So if God has the power to do all things, and certainly creating a rock is something, then God should indeed be able to create a rock too heavy for Him to lift. However if He did so He would no longer be omnipotent, for how can God be all powerful and yet be unable to lift the rock He just created. Yet it is only Monotheism that must wrestle with this issue.Polytheists (those who believe in many gods) don’t have this problem. The Greek gods share power, and no god ever possesses all power. Not even Zeus. In fact Zeus must be careful how he deals with the other gods since the wrong political move may cause a war that spills over onto Man’s tiny Earth. Polytheists say that Zeus cannot make such a rock, not because Zeus has all power but precisely because he does not.
The answer to this conundrum is not profound, but obvious once you reflect upon it. A category fallacy is unknowingly being committed by those who offer it. They are misunderstanding what power is. Power is an ability to do something, but that is not all it is. Power is always expressed by something, and how that power is expressed depends upon the nature of the some-thing expressing it. One way to understand a thing’s nature is through a term the ancient Greeks called Telos, which just means the function for which a thing was made, its design. Consider a toaster.
A toaster is designed to toast. If a toaster could no longer toast we would say that it lost the only ability (power) for which it was designed, and when compared to other toasters, the damaged one would be less powerful because it no longer possessed a power the others did. Likewise living things, and inanimate objects, have abilities that other creatures and objects do not. Brief cases are not designed to toast, and so in a particular way the brief case lacks a power the toaster does. Lions cannot breath under water as fish do, and so lack that particular ability.
Here I think it would be tempting to say, “Yes but aren’t you making my case as you speak. Isn’t God also lacking an ability, namely the ability to create a rock too heavy for Him to lift?”
This brings us back to our category fallacy mentioned at the outset. God is in a category all by Himself. Being in this category God’s existence excludes the possibility of certain other things from existing. The way the philosophers express this is in a law of Logic called the Law of Non-Contradiction. It simply means (A) cannot be (A) and NOT (-A) at the same time, in the same sense, in the same space, or in the same relationship. I cannot be five-foot two and six feet tall at the same time, neither can I be a married-bachelor.
Likewise, God being the sort of creature He is, excludes the possibility of other things existing. God cannot make a rock too heavy for him to lift because there is no such thing as a category labeled Rocks too heavy for God to lift. Think about it. If there were such a rock then God would not exist. His omnipotence (all power) precludes it. On the other hand, if God does not exist then the challenge is meaningless. God’s inability to create such a rock is actually not an inability because no such rocks exist. It is like saying that a hunter is not the greatest hunter in the world because the hunter failed to shoot a unicorn. Since unicorns do not exist the limitation is falsely applied to the hunter.
In fact there are many things that God cannot do. He cannot lie, He cannot destroy Himself, He cannot make square circles, He cannot make 2 + 2 = 7. These are equally foolish challenges. Lying is a deficit, it is a minus in human nature, not an addition to a creatures moral power. In such a case a person would be asking God to be less than morally perfect (Omni-benevolent).
Square-circles are logical contradictions, as are contradictions in mathematical operations. God cannot make 2 + 2= 7 because there is no Universe which God made where such a sum exists. The laws governing Logic, as well as the contradictions that result from them, flow from God’s nature, they are not above Him. Another way to put it would be to say that if God ever did suddenly cease to exist, then the laws of Logic as well as everything else in the world would also cease to exist. Christian Philosophers and Theologians call this dependence of the Universe upon God’s existence Providential Subsistence.
Before anyone asks any questions of power it is imperative first to ask what power is, who or what is expressing that power, and what categories are involved both of the creature manifesting that power and the type of power. Otherwise we run the risk of making much adu about nothing, in this case making an argument about God that does nothing to challenge the logical soundness of his existence.
