REAL debate thread for RELIGION

[Rían]

Originally posted by Falagar
I just have an interesting question for you Christians (don't know if you've seen it before, or found an answer):
God has unlimited power, right? So he can create whatever he wants, and has unlimited strength. Question: Can he then create a stone that he himself cannot lift?

A silly question perhaps, but I had to ask.

Falagar - I wish I knew how you were asking this, but I'll go ahead and treat it as a serious question, since at one point in my life, the question troubled me.

I don't like to quote from books too often, because I think it's more valuable for people to be able to put things into their own words, but I think C. S. Lewis has such an excellent answer to this, and it makes such sense, that I'll quote him:

C. S. Lewis, The Problem of Pain
[God's] Omnipotence means power to do all that is intrinsically possible, not to do the intrinsically impossible. You may attribute miracles to Him, but not nonsense. This is no limit to His power. If you choose to say "God can give a creature free will and at the same time withhold free will from it," you have not succeeded in saying anything about God: meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words "God can." It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.

Sorry this response is so late - let me know if you see it - I'll PM you if I don't see a response from you