View Single Post
  #21 (permalink)  
Old 07-10-2007, 04:01 PM
Civbert's Avatar
Civbert Civbert is offline.
Puritanboard Junior
 
Join Date: Nov 2005
Location: State of Franklin
Posts: 1,876
Thanks: 110
Thanked 67 Times in 47 Posts
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brian Bosse View Post
...
Definition: Person A is omnipotent if and only if person A can do what he wills.
...
Again, if I were an atheist I would ask: Why are these two properties contradictory?

Does anyone care to give this last question a go?

Brian
Excellent question. I think I have a more elegant solution than my first answer - which also answers your question.

First I would define omnipotent as being able to do whatever is logically possible. Thus an omnipotent being can not make a square circle. Now I can apply this to the rock. Is the rock in question logically possible?

Can a rock have a mass so great that no force can move it?

All physical objects have a definite mass. The force to move it would be simply the mass times the acceleration caused by lift. No matter how great the mass, there is a calculable force that can move it.

In the case of the rock, the force to move it would be the force necessary to overcome gravity - which is a function of the mass of the rock, and the mass of Earth (or whatever planet you wish).

Force = G x ( mass_earth x mass_rock) / Distance_center_mass^2

God can not make a rock so heavy that He can not lift it, because such a rock is itself a self-contradiction.
__________________
R. Anthony Coletti
Midway Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Jonesborough, TN
[i]et venite et arguite me dicit Dominus[/i]