Question 23 – Can God create a rock He can't lift?
We encounter a popular conundrum and paradox here that skeptics and scoffers often delight in asking. Their thought process is roughly as follows: if God cannot create a stone that He Himself cannot lift, then He is not omnipotent. However, if He can create such a stone, then He is still not omnipotent because He cannot lift it. Similarly, we might pose questions such as whether God can make a round square or create something more perfect than Himself. But in embracing this stance, skeptics, perhaps unknowingly, assert that their reasoning and logical thinking are flawless. In other words, they elevate themselves to the position of possessing the only true knowledge of logic, paradoxes, and the physical possibilities of the universe. Let me attempt to explain why I believe this to be the case.
Partially, I could employ the answer to question No. 4 – Who created God? However, I will try to tackle the issue from a different angle. Two possible ways of responding come to mind. Perhaps only one is correct, but it's also possible that both are applicable. The goal, therefore, is not to provide the answer "this is how it is." I wish to demonstrate to you that even such seemingly unsolvable paradoxes can have solutions. We may not know precisely which solution is correct, but their existence can reassure us that we can trust God without reservation and need not sacrifice divine omnipotence on the altar of limited human understanding.
1) He can do everything that is possible (self-limited)
Despite our limited understanding, we can deduce that questions of this type are inherently self-contradictory and nonsensical. They assign properties and realities to things that cannot pertain to them. It's like asking, "How many sides does a circle have?" It is crucial to grasp the true nature of omnipotence. God's omnipotence lies in His ability to do anything He desires. The flaw in these puzzles is their attempt to turn God into a trained monkey, imposing upon Him our notions of what is and isn't possible. Divine omnipotence does not imply the ability to do the logically impossible, but rather whatever He chooses.
Various physical and other limitations might also be seen as indications that God has self-imposed (or limited His creation within) certain boundaries. As will be suggested in the next section, He might have created a reality where people don't breathe air, have fins, and circles could, speaking in exaggerations, have six sides. I do not know. But He chose not to do so. He made the world as it is: He opted for option "a", not option "b". We may concoct various apparent puzzles, but by doing so, we achieve nothing more than highlighting our limited understanding and ignorance of divine power. We could speak of divine non-omnipotence only if God commanded something to occur, and it did not.
2) God can do almost everything
As I hinted in the introduction, claiming that God cannot do something seemingly impossible to us with our limited understanding is an arrogant assertion that elevates personal judgment to be the sole truth.
Indeed, there are things God cannot do (for example, cease to exist or stop loving), but I am convinced that many of these puzzles and questions amount to nothing but cries into the void. The issue is that some modern scientific fields (such as physics), philosophy, and certain logical systems contain paradoxes that coexist without much difficulty. Some scientists seriously propose (to me, unimaginable and insane) theories about multi-dimensional or alternative universes. Sometimes, seemingly contradictory phenomena or physical realities coexist, which science (so far) cannot unravel. Paradoxes and realities exist that are unknown, perhaps illogical, contradictory, and mutually exclusive, yet they exist.
What do these realities reveal? They suggest that the potentialities of the universe, the laws of physics, and human understanding are far from being fully explored. Even a number of renowned scientists admit that the more we know, the more we realize we know virtually nothing.
What am I suggesting? Clearly and demonstrably, as humans, we do not possess a complete knowledge of how our physical reality operates. I dare say we haven't the faintest idea of what God, in His omnipotence, could create within this (or any other physical) reality. If someone steadfastly insists that God is not omnipotent, they blatantly disregard the limits and scope of knowledge today's science has (or rather, does not have) about our world. As limited beings, we can never capture the full extent of knowledge. We can go only as far as God allows us.
God's paradox
The existence of God, including the existence of a spiritual world, creates numerous paradoxes that are not captured within our physical reality. If God and the spiritual world exist, they constitute at least another reality linked to ours, influencing it. They create additional levels of causes and effects, while remaining beyond the reach of our reality.
In conclusion, I submit that the entire issue of this question often reflects an individual's attempt to escape the (for them) harrowing reality of a God who is greater than we are. A God who cannot be boxed into our categories, weighed or measured—a God to whom we will one day have to give an accounting. And that, dear friends, makes many of us very uneasy. It is therefore much easier to concoct various excuses and deceive ourselves to escape this daunting reality.
Summation
The existence of conceptual paradoxes, no matter how logical they may appear, fundamentally proves nothing. They represent linguistic gymnastics, which can be intriguing to ponder, perhaps even justified at times, but they have their limitations. At our level of understanding, they cannot serve as a solid and compelling argument against God's existence or His omnipotence.