Flyer: Omnipotence Paradox

[trevor]

"Can an omnipotent being create a stone so heavy that it cannot lift it?

Can an omnipotent being create a triangle with internal angles not adding up to 180 degrees?"


Interesting/Useful links:

• http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Omnipotence_Paradox
• http://www.philosophyofreligion.info/omnipotence.html

So what do you all think?  Is this a paradox that precludes the existence of an omnipotent being?  The Abrahamic god is often said to be omnipotent.  Is there a logical way to explain the incongruence?

[january]

The way I see it, true omnipotence would have to conquer all, including the powers of logic. Not that I can wrap my head around how that would work, but all powerful should trump the difficulties of paradox. I think. Obviously I can't see a way for two plus two to equal five...

Or else, maybe rules of logic are an overarching power. Is it really wrong to claim that something capable of anything except nonsense is omnipotent? Nonsense doesn't really seem to stand in the way if it really isn't anything to begin with. Did I strawman that?

[Steve]

Interesting vandalism of one of the "Omnipotence Paradox" flyers attached in the science - ucentre tunnel:

Flyer :"Can an all powerful being create a triangle that has internal angles totalling greater then 180 degrees?"
Vandal: Yes!  Use non Euclidian Geometry!

Just found that interesting.

[trevor]

Hah... that's not much of a vandal   But yeah, I was thinking of adding "On a Euclidian plane," but it seemed too wordy.  From the wikipedia page:

"This can be done on a sphere, and not on a flat surface. Note that the later discovery of non-Euclidean geometry does not resolve this question; for one might as well ask, "If given the axioms of Riemannian geometry, can an omnipotent being create a triangle whose angles do not add up to more than 180 degrees?" In either case, the real question is whether or not an omnipotent being would have the ability to evade the consequences which follow logically from a system of axioms that the being created."

[Jason]

Is this a paradox that precludes the existence of an omnipotent being?

Without thinking much about it, I think not.  It looks a lot like the liar's paradox (i.e. some variant of "this sentence is false").  The issue in that case seems to be self-reference.  Analytic philosophers have fun with that one.  I think that the proposition that the paradox of omnipotence expresses might have similar properties, but I'm too tired to think much more on it now.

[redpen]

I have nothing productive to add to the debate.  But it must be said that that Bible verse you've got on your posts Jason - that kicks ass.  I nearly choked laughing on the paska bun I'm eating.  It was worth it.

Shaun