{"id":1459,"date":"2009-07-07T00:57:31","date_gmt":"2009-07-06T22:57:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/deleet.dk\/?p=1459"},"modified":"2009-07-07T00:57:31","modified_gmt":"2009-07-06T22:57:31","slug":"stone-paradox-%e2%80%93-revised-and-explained","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/2009\/07\/stone-paradox-%e2%80%93-revised-and-explained\/","title":{"rendered":"Stone-paradox \u2013 revised and explained"},"content":{"rendered":"

I posted this text a long time ago in Danish and I translated it and used it on the forum. I think I forgot to post the English version here as well. I apologize for the low quality English in the text.<\/p>\n

–<\/p>\n

I have earlier written a short article about why the stone-paradox not is a real paradox and therefore do not disprove omnipotent entities.<\/p>\n

The paradox<\/strong><\/p>\n

The paradox is usually formulated thus:<\/p>\n

Can an all-mighty [god, entity] create a rock so heavy that it cannot itself lift it? If it can, then it is not all-mighty and if it cannot, then it is not all-mighty. Given either outcome then the [god, entity] is not all-mighty.<\/p>\n

Let us formulate the argument more explicit:<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. If god exists, then \tgod is all-mighty.<\/li>\n
  2. Either god can a rock \tso heavy that he cannot lift it, or he cannot.<\/li>\n
  3. If god can, then he \tis not all-mighty.<\/li>\n
  4. If god cannot, then \the is not all-mighty.<\/li>\n
  5. Given either outcome, \tgod is not all-mighty. (2, 3, 4)<\/li>\n
  6. God does not exist \t(1, 5)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    The problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

    I claim that the problem lies with premise 3. It simply doesn’t follow that if god can create an object, which causes him to lose omnipotence, then he is not omnipotent. I will explain why later, let us now look at a similar argument which catches the problem mere clearly.<\/p>\n

      \n
    1. If god \texists, then god is all-mighty.<\/li>\n
    2. Either god can remove \this own all-mightyness or he cannot.<\/li>\n
    3. If god can, then he \tis not all-mighty.<\/li>\n
    4. If god cannot, then \the is not all-mighty.<\/li>\n
    5. Given either outcome, \tgod is not all-mighty. (2, 3, 4)<\/li>\n
    6. God does not exist. \t(1, 5)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      It should be clear that premise 3 is false. If it in some way is not clear to you, then let me explain exactly where it goes wrong.<\/p>\n

      Actuality and potentiality – the root of the problem<\/strong><\/p>\n

      All-mightyness is often defined as ‘can do everything’. This is too vague for us. Let us look at what one calls logical omnipotence (logical all-mightyness); one can do all which is logically possible. Logically possible is the weakest form of potentiality, because it just says that the thing is not self-contradictory.<\/p>\n

      If an entity can do all actions which are logically possible, then it can also create a rock so heavy that it cannot lift it. But this does not make it impotent; non-all-mighty. It is first when the rock becomes actual that the entity is no longer all-mighty. There being a possibility creation of a rock does not mean that it is created. Therefore there is a conflation of potentiality (can) and actuality (is) at the adherents to the argument.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      I posted this text a long time ago in Danish and I translated it and used it on the forum. I think I forgot to post the English version here as well. I apologize for the low quality English in the text. – I have earlier written a short article about why the stone-paradox not […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19],"tags":[193,14,894,934,1214],"class_list":["post-1459","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-religion-filosofi","tag-can-god-create-a-stone","tag-modal","tag-omnipotence","tag-paradox","tag-stone","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1459"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1459\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1459"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1459"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/emilkirkegaard.dk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1459"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}