Someone asked me about this question today, so here’s a quick throw together answer:
Could God create a stone so heavy he couldn’t lift it? Or Could God whip up a curry so hot he couldn’t neck it? Could God make a book so long he couldn’t get to the last chapter? – Heard questions like these? Difficult eh?
You might find it helpful to know that this isn’t a new argument, in fact it dates back to an Islamic philosopher called Averroes in the 12th Century…. and it certainly was knocked about before this. The argument in ‘big-n-cleaver’ terms is called the ‘Omnipotence Paradox.’ It basically runs like this:
a) God either can create a stone to heavy to lift or God can’t create a stone to heavy to lift
b) If He can – then He can’t lift it – so He isn’t all powerful
c) If He can’t – then He can’t make such a stone – so He isn’t all powerful
d) Therefore God isn’t all powerful.
So that’s our problem… but how do we solve it? What’s the answer? ‘Could God create a stone so heavy he couldn’t lift it?’
Lets start by thinking about the question:
A stone is a physical creation, so its bound by the rules all physical things are… it exists in time and space etc.
The action ‘lifting’ requires strength, leverage, and something to place under the stone (e.g. hands). Notice that all these things (strength, hands, etc.) are also creations so are bound by the same rules of the stone.
So lets test it! For us to carry out a fair and accurate experiment (any scientist will tell you), we need to place in a number of controls. First we need to make sure the lifted and the lifter are under the same conditions (as the action of lifting is created), so we need to ask God to bind himself by the rules of creation… i.e take on a body and be confronted with time + space etc.
Oh look, he’s done that already – lets call Him Jesus. – So God created all the stones in the world… and Jesus is God in flesh, could we find somewhere a stone that Jesus couldn’t lift? Absolutely Yes! – If we look at the question fairly, God has created a stone which himself in Jesus couldn’t lift.
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But your friend might say to you… but I’m not talking about Jesus.. I’m talking about Almighty eternal God! … This is where their question looses its umpth… because for their question to actually make any sense they must impose rules upon God from God’s creation. That happened in Jesus, Jesus was subject to the limitations of creation… e.g. he had to eat and sleep, and couldn’t lift some heavy stones.
But God is over and above all creation, so asking if HE in eternity could create a stone which is temporal so heavy he couldn’t lift it is a total nonsense, illogical, irrational, and dare I say stupid irrelevant question! Its just like asking how many numbers are in infinity! Its basically gibberish.
This sort of question is asked to avoid thinking about the actual important claims of Christianity, that all of us are accountable to God, and Jesus Christ was God in the Flesh.
So the answer is this … if the question is to be taken sensibly and scientifically – then sure, Jesus as a man couldn’t lift some stones.
If the question is not fair (which it normally isn’t) – then it’s a really stupid nonsense question which requires God to be 'created' rather than the 'creator.'
Whichever answer you give you will find that God is still all powerful, and the questioner still needs to think of the actual important claims of Jesus.
Hope this helps!
Tim
