[WikiEN-l] Wikipedia:Paradoxes

[stevertigo]

On Mon, Jul 20, 2009 at 5:40 AM, Daniel R. Tobias<dan at tobias.name> wrote:

> There is also the possibility that *neither* of these things [God &
> uncrushable stones] exist, and that is the possibility that seems
> most logical to me.

The God paradoxes don't involve so much the issue of God's existence,
but the absurdity of ideas about what He is and can or cannot do.
Words like "omnipotence," and "omnipresence" get thrown about a lot,
without much real regard toward defining their meaning in the relevant
context. And in any case, the points raised are simply paradox-like
absurdities - easy to conjure up, and sort of interesting-sounding -
but not actual paradoxes.

The 'solutions' are pretty straightforward: Nothing is "omnipotent" -
God is simply far more powerful than most people can imagine or
understand - not "all powerful," but still much more so than you -
thus the word "omni" suffices, even if its not accurate.
"Omnipresence" is likewise only accurate if one limits the definition
to mean 'presence within things that require presence' - Living,
conscious beings, for example - there's no need to be intimately aware
of atomic reactions in supernovae or whatever.

And of course, any "stone" is just a material conglomerate -
"crushing" itself refers to a concept of separating atoms through
force of weight. No matter, by definition, is "uncrushable." Or
indestructible, for that matter.

-Steven