Yes, yes, you can. Granted, most people dn’t, but it is eminently possible for people with certain brain conditions to interperet some thoughts and senses in ways they simply should not, accordig to our concept of the world. But there really isn’t anything that repvents the conceot of “nine” from being transmitted via another sense.
I get where you’re coming from, but doesn’t this open up the way to a definition (or rather non-definition) of a God so slippery that you can’t really say anything meaningful about him/it?
Statements like “God is X” would be right out, because “God is not X” would be equally and simultaneously true (and false).
What exactly could one say/think/believe about such an entity that would be in any way worthwhile?
Synaesthesia, I believe, although it would have to be double synaesthesia in this case, “Cuz nine’s not a color, and even if it was you can’t smell a color”. Anyway, one can stretch an analogy too far…
I certainly wasn’t trying to pass this age old question off as my own. I just couldn’t resist laying it on the board. I simply enjoy watching the creationists squirm like the little spineless creatures that they have evolved into!!! I like it! I like it a lot!!
Good point, and I guess, from my own point of view here, the answer is that we believe in god as he has chosen to reveal himself to us. I don’t believe god exsists as both A and !A, but I don’t think that we can deny such is possible, or within his power. Ultimately, my position is that the totality of god is beyond our comprehension, for now we see through a
glass, darkly; but then face to face: now
I know in part; but then shall I know even
as also I am known…and all that, if you catch my drift. Certainly I see your point as well, that such a definition invites god to lose meaning for his shapelessness, but that is where, again IMHO, faith enters in.
** InLikeFlynn** - :rolleyes:
Yes, this has been done before, over and over.
My favorite thread like this, just because it’s a funny concept and I’m hungry: Could God create a burrito so big even he couldn’t eat it?
Why, yes. God can create a boulder so large he cannot physically lift it.
He can, however, destroy that rock with a matter-disintegrator beam fired from his eyes.
He can raise the dead, fly unaided through space, travel through time without creating rifts or paradoxes, generate matter and energy in limitless quantities from nothing, exceed C with no effort and can program any VCR.
Fictional characters are limited only by the power of the writer’s imagination.
This isn’t a hard question. Of course God can create a boulder too big for him to move. Of course, since bigness makes no difference to God, what God would actually have to do is get rid of his own power.
And that is what all these types of questions are really asking: “can God get rid of his own power?”
He probably can, but chooses not to.
The question has nothing to do with God. It simply begs the question. By defining a boulder as one “too heavy for God to lift”, you’re asserting that there is something that God cannot do. Hence the question isn’t valid logically, and there can be no answer.
Asserting that “God isn’t limited by logic” muddies the waters because it also doesn’t mean anything. We are limited by logic and waving a magic wand (or hand for that matter–get it, “hand waving”?) doesn’t provide any insight.
No, the question has everything to do with God, and nothing to do with the boulder. Which makes sense, as the size of a boulder is irrelevant to whether God can lift it.
In other words, God is making a boulder he cannot lift, not by making the boulder particularly big, but by making himself unable to lift it. He is taking away that power from himself.
That damn God thinks he’s untouchable.
And four need not be defined as the sum of two and two, yet it is. Trying to resolve the paradox by simply redefining words ignores the point of the question.
C K Dexter Haven
This too ignores the point of the question. The question is not “Does God create boulders too large for Him to move?” but “Can He create a boulder too large for Him to move?” Your response does nothing to answer that question.
Are you also amused by people who think that calling a paradox silly is somehow an effective manner of resolving it? I think that this question brings up serious questions about poeple’s conceptions of God, and it is dismissed as simply being “silly” without people actually bothering to come up with a reason why it’s silly.
smiling bandit
Again, the question is not whether GOd does lift them, but whether he can.
LilShieste
It’s interesting how often believers respond to questions about their belief with variations on the “that’s not a valid question” theme.
Mangetout
What’s malformed about it? Are you saying that any question which involves two mutually exclusive things is malformed?
Rhum Runner
But it seems odd to me to believe in something, when one does not even understand what it means. If someone were to ask me if I believe that God is blafluer, I would respond that I don’t understand what he means by this word “blafluer”. Of course, the fact that I don’t understand the concept of “blafluer” in no way prevents God from having this property, but it does stop me from believing He has it. I therefore find it quite strange that people go around saying that God is omnipotent, and then when someone asks them a question regarding what this omnipotence really means, they say that as a mere mortal, they don’t understand God’s omnipotence, but that doesn’t mean that He doesn’t have it. Sure, but why believe in something when you don’t even know what it is that you believe?
Nightime
It seems to me that getting rid of the power to move the boulder is equivalent to simply deciding not to move it, which prompts once a again my objection that this about what God can do, not what He chooses to do.
emarkp
Huh? No one is defining the boulder as “too heavy for God to lift”. How did you get that?
Right there. The question describes the rock as “too big for him to move”.
That’s bizarre. According to your logic, every question begs itself. If I ask “Is 4 prime?” I’m defining 4 to be prime, which begs the original question of whether 4 is prime.
They are not equivalent. If God casts off the power to move the boulder, then he cannot move the boulder. He isn’t choosing not to move it, he can’t move it. So yes, God can create a boulder that he cannot move. He would just have to get rid of the power to move it. Afterwards he would not be able to move it.
If you are asking whether or not God can create a boulder he cannot move, but denying him the possibility of getting rid of the power to move the boulder, then the answer is no. But that is like saying “can you do X, if I deny you the possibility of doing X?”
No, primes exist independent of “4”. A boulder “too heavy for God to lift” presumes that God is limited.
Oh, and Nightime, if God “gave up his powers” (whatever that means) would he still be God? If not, can you really say this is an answer to the question?
But since such a boulder doesn’t exist, God is still unlimited. Doesn’t mean he can’t create one, he’s just got the sense not to.
I think a lot of people are missing the point of this question. It’s more a matter of faith. If you have faith in God, you don’t care if it is possible or not. If you do care, your faith is weak or non-existent.
The very concept of faith is believing in/accepting something on trust rather than displays of power or ability.
Argh! See me squirm! I am a theist, and as such I must necessarily be a creationist! Oh, how I am vexed and thwarted by the superior intellect and great creative wisdom of those able to repeat hundred-year-old freshman philosophy problems! I see now I must needs abandon my foolish, primitive beliefs and seek out the higher road of multiple-exclamation-point punctuation, but, woe is me, I sorely lack the courage, not to mention a rigid skeleton. Weep, thou strong, for the weak; I am lost, lost, lost.
Anybody know when school is back in session this year?
I’m solipsist. But yes I could create one, even if it wouldn’t be a real boulder. Of course I try to avoid heavy lifting, so I’ll never know.