Can an All-Powerful God exist in the face of paradox?

[buttsplatuken]

"And the lord spake unto the philospher, 'I am the Lord thy God, and I am all-powerful. There is nothing that you can say that can't be done. It's easy!'

And the philosopher spake unto the lord, 'OK, your mightiness. Turn everything that is blue red and everything that is red blue.'

The Lord spake, 'Let there be color inversion!' And there was color inversion, much to the confusion of the flag-bearers of Poland and San Marino.

And the philoshopher then spake unto the Lord, 'You want to impress me: make a square circle.'

The Lord spake, 'Let there be a square circle.' And there was.

But the philosopher insisteth, 'I didn't ask you to change the meaning of the word "circle" so it just means "square". I wanted a genuinely square circle. Admit it-that's one thing you can't do.'

The Lord thought a short while, and then decided to answer by unleashing his mighty vengeance on the philosopher's smart arse."

-From the book "The Pig That Wants To Be Eaten," by Julian Baggini. Chapter 24.



Is the belief of an All Powerful God a paradox in itself?

Any thoughts?

[TheRiz]

We sort of have discussed this before, in the threads that turned into religious debates.

Again I shall post this site, which provides a bunch of 'impossibilities' about the way God is usually conceived.

God is impossible.

[Maitereya]

if the god in this story was all powerful wouldnt he read the mans mind, see the future, and everything in between? so since this god can see all time at once then his circle square was right, or at least it was the anwser the philosopher needed. kind of like the oracle from the matrix.

"Is the belief of an All Powerful God a paradox in itself?" - no

[Zylark]

Ofcourse I can exist in the face of paradox. As God I have no problems with paradoxes. Remember, nothing is too advanced for me to understand since I created the whole shebang in the first place. You included you heathen! Ahh, just kidding. Got a nice condo reserved for you here in heaven. With a small hydro-setup for the plant I graced humanity with. Shame you won't see it for another eighty or so years. The future hard to see is, even for me.

Wasn't difficult really to get into the God business. A little investment capital, and some startup-matter, and there I was. Light was though a loaner. Soon got it payed down. People was easy to subject, as opposed to the stupid animals. No memory the bastards. And I who had such high hopes for the dolphins. Just publish a few contradictory nonsensical books every now and again to different people, and watch them get busy. Glorious indeed,

Oh, and you evangelicals. Do read my book once more, you know my appended midterm paper aka "King James" version. And don't take it quite so literal this time, hmmmmm? I gave you a brain you know. Use it FFS!

Until next time, do have a good time - God

[hozomeen]

technically, an all powerful god would be able to manipulate our brain in a way to make a square circle possible and understandable to us. maybe that's how some things were made as we know them now, like maybe a trapezoid is a seemingly impossible convergence of two different shapes that we now know and accept as a trapezoid because god made us able to understand it. but the square circle idea has been around a long while, and it still is impossible. maybe he is asleep? fuck me, am i still posting?

[Digit]

Originally Posted by TheRiz

... 'impossibilities' about the way God is usually conceived. ...

exactamundo.

[Rasta_Man]

All that case-study highlights is the limitation of the human perspection of our 3-dimensional universe and the integral conflict of logic existing in geometry.

This is similar to the logical contradiction of movement.

[runner's high]

The square circle argument is definitely a compelling one. It sidesteps the troublesome you-can't-absolutely-disprove-something-unless-you-know-everything issue.

That said, I don't think the Abrahamic God can exist. How can a perfect creator create an imperfect creation? And why would He? (If He is omniscient then He knows his creation will turn out flawed before He even creates it.)

"Free will!" is the religion's resounding answer to these questions. "God gave people free will and these people used it to make bad choices. Thus, imperfection and evil are the fault of the free-willed people, not God." Unfortunately this argument doesn't hold water either.

Since God is omniscient, He already knew people would make bad choices when He gave them free will. This means He knowingly enabled evil to exist within His creation. But what's so bad about that? Wouldn't life be meaningless without good and evil? Maybe, but isn't it a little strange that God allowed evil to exist and then punishes people--eternally--for committing it? If He (1) dislikes certain choices that we makes and (2) He knew we would make them, then why would He give us a choice at all?
.
Why is the Creator punishing his Creation for the way He made them?

Bonus Question: If God is omniscient (He knows everything, past, present, future), and humans have free will (we are in control of our decisions), how can our will be free if He already knows the choices we will make?

[Greenfingered1]

Originally Posted by runner's high

Bonus Question: If God is omniscient (He knows everything, past, present, future), and humans have free will (we are in control of our decisions), how can our will be free if He already knows the choices we will make?

Our will is still free, that would only change if God, in knowing our destiny, decided to change our decisions or remove those choices from our lives completely.

[naku06]

Originally Posted by Greenfingered1

Our will is still free, that would only change if God, in knowing our destiny, decided to change our decisions or remove those choices from our lives completely.

what if he is already?

[Greenfingered1]

Originally Posted by naku06

what if he is already?

OK

Revise that first bit to "Our will would still be free"



But who says he even exists anyway

[naku06]

alot of people, im not one of them.