{"id":4471,"date":"2018-10-30T06:49:27","date_gmt":"2018-10-30T10:49:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/?p=4471"},"modified":"2018-10-30T16:32:29","modified_gmt":"2018-10-30T20:32:29","slug":"but-how-do-i-answer-when-people-ask-me-the-question-can-god-create-a-heavy-stone-that-even-him-cannot-carry","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/2018\/10\/30\/but-how-do-i-answer-when-people-ask-me-the-question-can-god-create-a-heavy-stone-that-even-him-cannot-carry\/","title":{"rendered":"But how do I answer when people ask me the question &#8220;can God create a heavy stone that even Him cannot carry?&#8221;"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_4466\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-4466\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AW10302018-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4466\" src=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AW10302018-3-300x294.jpg\" alt=\"I believe God is the greatest most powerful God. But how do I answer when people ask me the question &quot;can God create a heavy stone that even Him cannot carry?&quot;\" width=\"300\" height=\"294\" srcset=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AW10302018-3-300x294.jpg 300w, https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/10\/AW10302018-3.jpg 640w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-4466\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">I believe God is the greatest most powerful God. But how do I answer when people ask me the question &#8220;can God create a heavy stone that even Him cannot carry?&#8221;<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Ah, a classic logic problem which lots of thinkers have addressed. It&#8217;s called the omnipotence paradox, and there are a variety of responses to it. Actually entertaining Wikipedia article: <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bc-omni\">bit.ly\/bc-omni<\/a>. More technical discussion: <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/bc-omni2\">bit.ly\/bc-omni2<\/a>. Aquinas argues that logic still applies: Even an omnipotent being can&#8217;t do something impossible. Augustine argues that God must act according to his nature, which means he can&#8217;t create anything omnipotent. The Wall&#8217;s favorite modern response is that the question is just a pile of words: if God is omnipotent, &#8220;could not lift&#8221; doesn&#8217;t make sense.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ah, a classic logic problem which lots of thinkers have addressed. It&#8217;s called the omnipotence paradox, and there are a variety of responses to it. Actually entertaining Wikipedia article: bit.ly\/bc-omni. More technical discussion: bit.ly\/bc-omni2. Aquinas argues that logic still applies: Even an omnipotent being can&#8217;t do something impossible. Augustine argues that God must act according &hellip; <\/p>\n<p class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/2018\/10\/30\/but-how-do-i-answer-when-people-ask-me-the-question-can-god-create-a-heavy-stone-that-even-him-cannot-carry\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;But how do I answer when people ask me the question &#8220;can God create a heavy stone that even Him cannot carry?&#8221;&#8221;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4471","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-big-questions"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4471"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4482,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4471\/revisions\/4482"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4471"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4471"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/library.bc.edu\/answerwall\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4471"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}