Thinking Christian

 The Paradox of the Stone

Again, this argument is sometimes used by theists as well (either as an excercise in forming a coherent concept of God, or as part of an argument for/against some particular way to understand the God-concept). But often it does serve the purpose of an atheistic argument.

Argument: The concept of an omnipotent God makes no sense, as is demonstrated by the following question: Can God create a stone so heavy that even he cannot lift it?

Reply: This question appears to be based on a misconception that does not correspond to the traditional Christian understanding of the term ‘omnipotence’. According to the Christian view, God cannot act contrary to his own nature. For example, he cannot lie. Likewise, the ability to do the logically impossible is something that the concept of omnipotence does not include. Just as God is totally truthful and thus it would be against his nature for him to lie, arguably, God is also perfectly logical by his nature, and thus it would be against his nature to act illogically.

Perhaps we can make the relation of God, omnipotence and logic clearer by formulating the response in this way. For every task that can be coherently described, God can do it. But if the very definition of the task is self-contradictory, it simply fails to describe an actual task that could be done. That is not a limitation of God’s power, but rather is a consequence of a poorly formulated and contradictory set of concepts that fails to actually describe a task.

When we apply this line reasoning to the case of the stone, the results seem to be as follows:

God can create and lift any logically possible stone. The very concept of a stone that an omnipotent being could not lift is illogical. Just ask yourself: What would be the property that a stone could have, which would make it unliftable for an infinitely powerful being? Clearly, no such property exists, and therefore, no stone can have such property.