Some critics
have alleged that the theistic view of God is incoherent, since it
claims God is omnipotent or all-powerful. They argue:
1. An
all-powerful Being can do anything.
2. An
all-powerful Being can make a stone so heavy that he cannot move it.
3. Hence,
an all-powerful Being cannot do everything.
4. But
premises 1 and 3 are contradictory
5. Hence,
it is contradictory to hold that God is all-powerful.
No
sophisticated theist really believes premise 1 in an unqualified way.
What informed theists believe is that:
1a. God
can do anything that is possible.
2a. It is
not possible to make a stone so heavy that it cannot be moved.
3a.
Therefore, it is not possible for God to make a stone so heavy that
he cannot move it.
God cannot
literally do any task we can imagine. He cannot contradict his own
nature. Hebrews 6:18 declares, "It is impossible for God to lie."
Neither can God do what is logically impossible; for example, make a
square circle. He cannot make two mountains without a valley between.
And he cannot deny the law of noncontradiction.
Further, God
cannot do what is actually impossible. For example, he cannot will not
to create a world he has willed to create. Of course, he could have
willed not to create. But once he willed to create it was impossible
for him to will not to create. Neither can God force free creatures to
believe things against their will. Forcing someone to freely do
something is a contradiction in terms. For if it is free, it is not
forced. And if it is forced, then it is not free.
It is
actually impossible to make a stone so heavy it cannot be moved. What
an omnipotent Being can make, he can move. A finite creature cannot be
more powerful in its resistance than the infinite Creator is in his
power not to be resisted. If God brought it into existence, he can
take it out of existence. Then he could recreate it somewhere else.
Therefore, there is no contradiction in believing that God is
omnipotent and that he can do anything that is possible to do. The
critic has set up a straw-man argument and has not shown any
incoherence in God’s attribute of omnipotence.
