God's ability

@qianyun6 (2067)
China
July 9, 2010 7:18am CST
I read a story in a book when I was a child: [i]One day a Christian did missionary work to his believers, he said: "God is omnipotent! He can do everything, he created everything, including the world, humans..." A passer just passed that region, he heard the Cristian's speech, and asked: "Can god create a stone which can't be lifted by himself?"[/i] Of course, the purpose of this story is to tell us Chinese children don't be superstitous. But my dear lotters, what do you think after reading this story? Do you think many propaganda of religions are logical self-contradictory and easy to fall into dilemma? What's the difference between religions and superstitions in your opinion?
1 person likes this
11 responses
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
9 Jul 10
This is a classic example of muddled thinking, improper logic and a misunderstanding of the meaning of 'omnipotence'. The correct answer is in two parts: 1) God is able to create an object more massive than anything you can imagine. 2) God is able to move this object because He is its creator and also the creator and master of the laws of gravity and inertia (which are what prevent humans from having unlimited powers). God does not suffer from the limitations of physical muscular strength, so He can move anything. There are a number of things which God is unable to do. One of these - the main one - is that He is unable to be untrue to His own nature. Most of the other 'inabilities' follow from that. Only once you begin to understand what God is can you have any idea of what God is not. Conundrums such as the one you quote can only be given serious consideration by those people who do not understand what God is.
1 person likes this
• United States
10 Jul 10
What an insightful response. I'm glad I read it, and I hope I remember it. I also hope others will read it and it will cause them to think.
@limlobin (103)
• Philippines
12 Jul 10
Yup, very true as stated in Hebrews 6:18 and Romans 3:4
• India
9 Jul 10
you are a wise man!
1 person likes this
• Singapore
9 Jul 10
I have a question: Why does God create people who doesn't believe in him?
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@qianyun6 (2067)
• China
9 Jul 10
I can't help laughing You are really funny... Maybe he made a mistake, only put the faith into the brain of the original people who was created by himself, but forgot embedding the godliness into the gene in gametes. So the faith was not inherited by the posterities.
@owlwings (43915)
• Cambridge, England
9 Jul 10
Bluemoonpavilion, God creates people, all of whom have the potential of understanding and believing in Him. He has also given us freedom of choice. It is up to each individual to choose to acknowledge Him or not.
1 person likes this
• Singapore
10 Aug 10
qianyun, thanks for the BR owlwings, thanks for the explanation. Indeed we have the freedom to choose our religion, it would be good to do so after some level of understanding and study.
@Hatley (163781)
• Garden Grove, California
9 Jul 10
quabtgyun6 superstition is just false beliefs.my opinion and this is just mine is that God made us with free moral will and we have'been given the information to live good clean lives but its up to us to chose that path or to go in different directions. I have a strong faith a nd do not care to argue about this as I feel in 'my soul my belief and thats good enough for me.
1 person likes this
@limlobin (103)
• Philippines
12 Jul 10
Being omnipotent doesn't mean God can do everything as He please. He remains true to His words and promises. He is all knowing of Good and Evil, and yet He gave us free will to do what we want. And so if He knows that you are planning to do Evil, He cannot stop you from your will to do it for it forfeit His gift to us of Freewill. However, he can talk through means of our conscience. Here is a bit logic of what God is 1 + 1 = 2. No matter what you do nor what you think, 1 + 1 will never be equal to any number. If you can't understand that logic, you'll have difficulty of understanding God, the grand architect of us all. Also if any of you remember the story of the Devil tempting the Son of Man to make the stone into a bread, knowing full well that the Son of Man can. Why then the Son of Man didn't make the stone into a bread? Just some points to ponder.
@meirhu (363)
• Israel
11 Jul 10
That's not the MAIN contradiction of there being an all-good, all powerful, all knowing "God". The MAIN problem is if this "God" is all powerful and all knowing then IT is the source of ALL evil and CAN"T be only good. Actually It would be EVIL itself.
@khad2000 (183)
• India
10 Jul 10
hello qianyun i also heard this story from a christian they use to say , when GOD can make any thing , why cant he come to world in human form as jesus i tell you one thing GOD does only GODLY things there are limitations to GOD himself because GOD is the first and the last he was neither created nor he can be destroyed so GOD cannot create another GOD because, once he creates another GOD ,then that GOD has a creation so it ceases to be a GOD another example for GOD's limitation is he cannot throw my out of his sovereignty because , there is no another GOD and so there is no another sovereignty GOD cannot became human , because once he become human ,then there is beginning and an end further he should depend on food so GOD become dependent but GOD is independent of every thing so there are lots of limitations of GOD GOD WILL DO ONLY GODLY THINGS BEST SUITED TO HIS MAJESTY
@qianyun6 (2067)
• China
11 Jul 10
Ahh, This is a good logic, if I haven't misread. You separate the question to two part, God's world and humans' world. Both God and humans do their own independently. God does God's things, we do our things, then everything is simple now...God is only a concept to trust for us. Smart thought!
@khad2000 (183)
• India
12 Jul 10
firstly , to me GOD is the creator of every thing in the universe and human is like a peanut thrown in the ocean can you compare a peanut and a ocean imagine the universe it is limit less and beyond the limitations of human imagination!human imagination fails here ! see ,we cannot imagine what is universe and we want to compete with its creator if GOD is the creator of universe , where is competition between GOD and human why should such a GOD take a human form or make a rock as your story says it is like saying , president of a country wants to try begging with a beggar it will never suit his majesty so, GOD created human , thought him every thing through prophets and scriptures and gave human a free will to choose between right and wrong so GOD different .humans different
• United States
10 Jul 10
I think you have to look at the claims that are being made by a religion as well as looking at its history and whether or not that religion has fulfilled prophesies. Can the religion backup its claims with evidence? What's the history of the religion? Has it stood the test of time? Have people tried to destroy it or is it maligned by its enemies and if so, how has it stood that test? Are the claims it makes reasonable? I think superstitions are things that get planted in one's head because of a particular event. For instance, some sort of tragic event happens on Friday the 13th and from that day forward Friday the 13th is an unlucky day. It's folklore. It's things you cause to happen to you because you believe it will happen.
@bird123 (10632)
• United States
10 Jul 10
If one depends solely upon beliefs then there is no difference between religion and superstition. Beliefs are merely a patch that covers what isn't known. It isn't the stopping point. It's the starting point to search for the facts. Discovery often takes stepping out into the unknown instead of being comfortable not knowing. Religion is man's attempt to understand God, however I see more accepting rather than reaching to learn the unknown. With God, there is always more to discover. God is more than you can find in any holy book!!
@damned_dle (3942)
• Philippines
10 Jul 10
I don't get the story! What stone was the passer talking about? I'm not familiar with that story.
• Bulgaria
10 Jul 10
First of all religion is a bad word.The religion in her very form was created in Anicient Sumer and this stick to our day too.The holy books in every religion has some truth but not for GOD's power,cuz the only think we can say sure for GOD is that he create all this .Universe,planets,dimensions in simple word's the positive and negative energy that flew all around.U can tell this like bad or good but all is from that very GOD. U can't tell what GOD can do cuz u can't tell what man can do.The religion was build to keep us down like slaves and prevent us to know about our true nature,and this nature is not our bioform. All the books was writen from man and they was rewriten and translated by other man's.What they win from that only they can tell if most of them was live among with us.If we wasn't tricked for this long with stuffs that is not so important to us we probobly be abble to do a lot of "miracles" they spoke in this books. And stop thinking so long start to feel it,find the balance inside of u.And stop worship thinks that are not real and never will be no metter how many this lie will be told it never became a true.
• Spain
9 Jul 10
so they are thinking god needs or help??