Ever heard this one:
Can God move and un-movable stone?
It's a silly question, don't give it any thought.
What I am wondering about though, is rationality. Jenny, this blog's best commenter, raised the issue of rationality a couple of posts ago, and it has got me thinking. Something I've always wondered about, is this:
Is God bound by rationality?
I think he is. I think rationality is a property of existence. In fact, I think it's more fundamental than even existence. I think that if God exists, then he cannot not-exist. And the reason I think that's true, is because it's irrational for both to be true.
But I'm speaking outside of my field of expertise here. Anyone got any ideas how to think about this little nugget?
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I think we need some definitions Tony!How are you defining rationality? What is it's connection to perfection and wisdom?
ReplyDeleteHi Tony,
ReplyDeleteThe more traditional version of the omnipotence paradox is "Can God create a stone so heavy that He cannot lift it?"
I remember arguing about this silly paradox with a very religuous person when I was young. Although, I still think that it is a paradox if one takes the omnipotence literally, I sincerely regret the fact that I argued about it. I also think that it is a good example of a class of similar questions, which I have thought about a lot. Because of these two reasons, I want to share some of my thoughts related to this "silly question".
My grandmother was a very religous person. She was extremely clever woman, but she was not well educated. So every time I hear this paradox (in one of the many equivalent forms) I think about some well-educated scientist asking this question from her.
The situation is rather complicated. The scientist have been taught to think this way. He has learned that he only needs to find one counterexample or one paradox to show that some statement has to be wrong. (I think that for non-scientists it would be surprising to find out how useful this approach is in science.) Now, after finding this "omnipotence paradox", the scientist thinks that he has proved that "God cannot be omnipotent". My grandmother does not even know what the word "omnipotence" means. She thinks that God has all the power to influence everything what happens in the world, but how can she possibly answer this "silly question"? Which one of them is right? Which one of them will win the argument?
The sad thing is that although my grandmother is right she will lose the argument. There is no way that she could possibly answer this question, although the answer is actually as simple as the solution to the "Egg of Columbus problem".
Did my grandmother ever think that God could create an object that would, simply by existing, cause a logical paradox? The answer is No! Therefore, there is nothing my grandmother has to give up in her religion. She could just say "God can create everything else except things which would cause a logical paradox simply by existing." She simply does not have to care about the stupid definition the scientist has given to the word "omnipotence"! Instead, she could just think about the way she has always thought about the power, which God actually has!
Now I want to discuss another reason why I am writing this comment. It is known as the "Logical problem of evil". It is often attributed to Epicurus and may be schematized as follows:
(1) If an all-powerful and perfectly good God exists, then evil does not.
(2) There is evil in the world.
(3) Therefore, an all-powerful and perfectly good God does not exist.
I think that the solution is the same as desribed above! The way I have understood the Bible is that God wanted to give us "Free will". It is a big (unsolved) problem in science how the free will can exist, and I have no idea how to solve this problem. Anyway, if we trust our everyday experience, the free will does indeed exist. (Since I know a little bit about science I also know that it makes sense to trust the everyday experience instead of science.) I think that it would cause a logical paradox if God would give us a free will and at the same time try to make sure that evil does not exist in the world.
The question which I want to ask is: Are we living in a complex world, which is a compromise?