I was just thinking how could a God (any God, no specific religion implied) be almighty. But I found that doesn't stand logical analysis, read below.

Let's assume he is almighty for the sake of the argument, so:
1. if he's almighty he can create a stone so heavy that no-one (including himself) can lift.
2. if he can't lift it then he isn't almighty. If he can lift it then that contradicts (1) (he can't create a stone so heavy than no-one (including himself) can lift)

So basically he can't be almighty.

I'd like to see your reactions to this demonstration. Is there a way around it that would allow a God to be almighty ? Or is it definitely impossible ?

TheLight

An almighty God would know better than to make a stone he couldn't lift.

but that means there are some things he simply - can't do:)))))

I don't question it!!!!

I just know he is almighty!!

And that's that!!!

If we could comprehend the unfathomable power the creator has (or might have, in the skeptics case), lifting a boulder will be passe. This is going to sound like "Why would he bother", but perhaps we don't understand all what he can do because we are limited to the third dimension of thinking, whether he can lift a boulder too heavy for him or not, there's probably a reason why and why not that we couldn't possibly comprehend.

To answer the question "is it possible for a god to be almighty" i suggest we first understand the defintion of almighty:
often capitalized : having absolute power over all <Almighty God>
2 : relatively unlimited in power
3 : great in magnitude or seriousness

now consider this:

According to David Barrett et al, editors of the "World Christian Encyclopedia: A comparative survey of churches and religions - AD 30 to 2200," there are 19 major world religions which are subdivided into a total of 270 large religious groups, and many smaller ones. 34,000 separate Christian groups have been identified in the world. "Over half of them are independent churches that are not interested in linking with the big denominations."




After reading the definition then reading the statistics of God's influence, wouldnt it be fair to say that God really is almighty? And that was 3 years ago...

could not the god of choice create a stone impossible to lift for himself...but THEN should the need to lift it arise, simply alter the conditions of the universe in which the stone lies to conform to whatever necessities arise in order to make said stone liftable? Therefore, the god could create alternate universes dependant upon whether or not the stone needs to be lifted..therefore residing within universe #1, the god can say .."this stone which I have created is unliftable," But then also migrate to universe #2 and say "I can now lift the stone which is simultaneously unliftable."

Ok but basically the topic wasn't about any religion in particular, and the demonstration is purely logical.

I like the idea from theSOURCE but in the end that doesn't prove the case since lifting an object means moving it away from where it is attracted. There's attraction anywhere in space, it's simply extremely small when you get far from a dense object (it decrease with the square of the distance), but nonetheless it exists. So you can lift an object in space.

To respond to the one saying this was an anti-religion topic, it's not. It just questions if a God could be almighty, no more no less. May be a God is almighty enough to do what he has to do but that doesn't mean is 100% almighty.

TheLight

a god who is almighty, can make the choice to put his/her 'might' on 'hold' in order to become mightless. It is this ability that only contributes to his/her almightyness.

I like these type of questions. They really have NO right answer. Both parties just keep expanding and expanding until you realize that your using a lot of brain power to figure out nothing. To me it says a lot about how we, as humans, think. We may think we're getting smarter, but it's the fact that where we are focusing our thought power is not the smartest place. Think about it...

Of course its possible , anything unkown for sure is possible . For all you know I am an alien who has taped into the earths internet and is discussing topics on this forum as means of study on the human race .

Of course , I am not an alien . But you can't really know that for sure can you ? Since you havn't seen me outside of the forums . Just stating that you can't really disprove the existance of an almighty god with opinions and/or facts since nobody can know for sure .

If you could easily understand the entire magnitude of Gods existence, He wouldn't be God. That would be a God created by man, instead of a God that created man.

this hypothetical "super-creature" called "god" or "jack" or "susan" (or that guy called "Q" from star trek) or whatever, must have SOME limitations to its powers. its mere existence proves that. but our silly minds probably cant understand or reconstruct conditions under which that "creature" would be powerless - but those conditions must exist, at least i think so. and that idea: "oh, god wouldnt bother doing that" just makes no point in this discussion, coz that wasn't the question.
i think that this "absoulte power" must be devided in some way. one single entity with "unlimited" power just seems like a bad idea:)))) would this "creature" have the power to kill itself? and what then? bah, as you guys stated, its pretty pointless
to discuss all this with our "down-to-earth" way of reasoning. people have the power the make questions that have no answer, and there's no limit to human imagination. and we all could be right or wrong... coz there's no way of going around that old line "oh yea? well prove it!" )))). we have opinions, and thats it:)
and i bet NONE of them are the right ones:)))))))))

just an idea about "christian" god: if god exists, then satan exists. if god is so powerful and allmighty, why doesnt he simply destroy satan, the creator of all that's evil? he wont? why the hell not?!?! or he can't? is there an agreement between the two?))) aw, who cares, i'm off to have a beer:)))

Weight means nothing to an Almight God. It is completely irrelevant, not even an obstacle sense he controls the very forces of nature. Therefore your question makes no sense, you might as well have asked if he could make a rock so yellow that he couldn't lift it.

an example of something he couldn't control is?

@ moe .

Do you really scream "El chubacabra " at random people ?

Light....

I point out that God, the only God, the one that created the universe you live in (whether you believe it or not) is more powerful, more intuitive than you could ever imagine....and you say I'm off topic? You brought up a 'might be' question about God and I answered it the ONLY way it can be answered.........

Sorry you don't agree, but the answer to your question lies within you, if you'd open up your mind to it. Someday when you're in great despair he will be there for you, no matter what terrible, denying things you say about Him.

Moe quoted ...

Moe, the Chupacabra joke is getting a bit old. Wanna try a new one? Maybe like... hmmm... errr.... Sasquatch?

It's, basically, like saying "what came first the chicken or the egg"?

No answer is wrong so is there any real point in mashing your brain to find an answer.

As little Lisa from the Simpsons asked Bart..." if a tree falls in the jungle and there's no-one around to hear it, does it make a sound"?

The Light.....

I'm just trying to point out to you that talking about God is talking about religion, whether you believe it or not........As there is but ONE God.

PROVE THEIR IS NOT ONLY ONE GOD BUT ANY GODS

THIS IS FOR ALL THE BELEIVERS

stop thinking of it as a god issue, god was used as an example for the allmighty debate because he is portrayed that way and everyone will relate, the question at hand is, what is it to be allmighty, if I were allmighty or if you were allmighty would you be able to make a rock unliftable, but then lift it? thats all you have to worry about

Well, if you're looking at it purely from a scientific point of veiw...

Every single action in this universe, be it lifting a rock, or creating your own universe, requires energy...in animals (it is logical to assume that 'god' would be an animal rather than a plant) we have many rather clever ways of making energy molecules, but there is still a limit to exactly how much any given creature can make.

Now...the sheer amount of energy that would be needed to not only keep the functions of your own cells up and running for all eternity, let alone sunder oceans, destroy cities, create worlds and so forth would be so astronomical, and there is no way whatsoever that any being could possible create that many ATP.

For that same reason, I don't think it's possibly for humans to fly, use magic, or other such oddness

But anyway, purely from a scientific standpoint, it's impossible to be almighty, because limitations are in place according to exactly how many energy molecules your body can produce.

The bible

lol...so your arguement against logic is "logic doesn't exist, because my book says so!"

When confronted with logic, the least someone could do is reply in kind I've stated a logical arguement as to why an almighty being couldn't exist. You have given me...some...strange rant, telling me I don't know anything, because I disagree with your book

I've got another one for you...mitochondria.

Now...the evidence suggest that, back in the sludge of single celled life being at the top of the ladder, mitochondria were actually seperate bodies from cells...now, without mitochondria, a cell is only able to produce 4 molecules of ATP per cycle...that's not a theory, that's a biological fact

Now...at some point, mitochondria were absorbed into a cell through phagosytosis, and were kept in place because with them, cells could now produce a net gain of 34 molecules of ATP each cycle.

Evidence of this is that mitochondria replicate themselves independantly; the cell doesn't actually store the information for them. They also contain their own DNA, and other tools needed to create proteins...the same is true for chloroplasts, which are believed to have entered the cell in the same way.

How, given that chloroplasts and mitochondria were so vital the respective development of animals and plants, you'd honestly think that a supreme being with almighty knowledge and power would have forseen a slight problem in leaving them out, and a chance encounter between the two wouldn't have had to fix his screw up

is said god a carbon based biological entity? Surely that's not very god-like.

Neither is so drastically changing your outlook on life between the old and new testament For a being that must measure time in eons, he sure is fickle. Damn flightly supreme beings who don't know what they want...

They can't explain the big bang, because the cosmology theory and the particle theory are contradictory. They cohabit well when the universe is big (as we observe it nowadays) since they can be decorralated but they clash when the universe was microscopic because we don't know how they would interact. So again God comes as an explanation of our current limitation of knowledge. May be in 1000 years, people will find it primitive to explain the Big Band as God's action.

here's a link about how the Big Bang may have started

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/astr...e_010413-1.html

Jesus will not judge us fairly. He will judge us with mercy and grace. If he were to judge us fairly, not one of us would enter into heaven.

Seraphina, I have always understood your posts, and always agreed with them. I understand all of your biological answers. But I'm afraid that you've lost me on this one. As many religions believe, God is a part of the spirit world. Spirits don't have mitochondria, they have no need for it. I admit that I haven't really given this particular idea too much thought, but most God fearing religions will agree that God is not a physical being. He does not have the "body" that humans do, therefore it is most likely that he will not have cells, ATP, etc.