I’ve heard theists argue that presenting god with paradoxes, like asking him to make a square circle, does not nullify or place limits on him. But damn it’s such a losing rhetorical position, even if it sounds reasonable, it shows what shaky ground the entire bogus enterprise of religion is based on. “My god is omnipotent! Except for… you know… things!” If they were just a little mor imaginative they could use an argument about extra dimensions to show how god can create square circles.
Any reasonably powerful god could make a non-Euclidean spacetime in which the points equidistant from a central point also form 4 straight line segments of equal length that meet at right angles.
I also think the classic rock so heavy it can’t be lifted fails, for the same reason that an omnipotent god could clearly commit suicide, if it wanted to (and once it did, it would no longer have the capability to perform other actions).
The omniscience thing is harder, because of things like incompleteness theorem, but I don’t think I can really describe what it means to know everything in the first place. “Able to provide a true, and comprehensive answer to any question for which a true, and comprehensive answer is possible” doesn’t seem to give any contradictions, but as you mention has the feel of dancing around all the hard issues.
I’ve heard theists argue that presenting god with paradoxes, like asking him to make a square circle, does not nullify or place limits on him. But damn it’s such a losing rhetorical position, even if it sounds reasonable, it shows what shaky ground the entire bogus enterprise of religion is based on. “My god is omnipotent! Except for… you know… things!” If they were just a little mor imaginative they could use an argument about extra dimensions to show how god can create square circles.
Any reasonably powerful god could make a non-Euclidean spacetime in which the points equidistant from a central point also form 4 straight line segments of equal length that meet at right angles.
I also think the classic rock so heavy it can’t be lifted fails, for the same reason that an omnipotent god could clearly commit suicide, if it wanted to (and once it did, it would no longer have the capability to perform other actions).
The omniscience thing is harder, because of things like incompleteness theorem, but I don’t think I can really describe what it means to know everything in the first place. “Able to provide a true, and comprehensive answer to any question for which a true, and comprehensive answer is possible” doesn’t seem to give any contradictions, but as you mention has the feel of dancing around all the hard issues.