The omnipotency paradox is a contradiction.

Source: Wiki

This paradox isn't really a paradox and here is a potential reason why.

If it is true that an omnipotent god is unlimited to any power, then yes he can create through this power, a task that he has no power to undue. However, due to the fact that this omnipotent god has the power to do anything necessary to perform an action successfully, then logically speaking he can create a challenge that he himself cannot do and that he himself then can do.

But if he created it so that he could not originally do it how can this be possible?

Simply put, he has the power to undue his own power as does any being that has any and every power. So if he chooses with his own power to create something he can't do, he also has the power to do what he can't do.

When it comes to this definition, 'Gods power to' can be followed with any possible activity, including the ability to undue your own power. It is like an equation, if (x)= anything or gods power can = anything then why limit it to not being able to overcome a challenge he creates as impossible. The thing is with this definition god can technically do the impossible, including the impossibility of him successfully creating a challenge that he cannot perform.

This concept thus is not a paradox, because the definition can be applies to any activity possible, including achieving the impossible challenge of succeeding to perform an activity to that he himself made impossible.

:smoking:

 

You seem to have missed the fact that if something is made impossible to do, then by doing it you are making it possible, thereby negating the impossibility of it, so you never made an impossible task. If you make an impossible task that you can do then you can't make an impossible task. So it makes omnipotence a paradox. Omnipotence is the power to do anything, no limits. Yet in its very nature it sets a limit upon itself.

 

It's not a paradox, it's a contradiction. To omnipotent being's 'possible' doesn't exist and doesn't apply. The dichotomy of possibility and impossibly doesn't apply to omnipotent beings, therefore it can't be a paradox because a paradox implies to opposing forces whereas with omnipotence there is only ONE FORCE NOT TO OPPOSING FORCES.

Concepts such as impossibility and possibility are mutually exclusive. Once you can't apply one, you can't apply the other. It is much like good and bad, you can't call all things bad, because the concept bad implies that there is a relative good.

That's why we need not ask the question what can an omnipotent being do or not do, because do and not do, possibility and impossibility do not apply to a being that has no limits.

Look, its the same as omnipresence. If you assume that something can be omnipresent, they can be everything and everywhere. So for example, an omnipresent god can be the thing they create because what they create they are present within. It's like god creating a the universe, as soon as he creates the uinverse, by definition, he becomes it, but somehow retains his seperate presence of the universe. So he becomes what he creates yet remains the creator. That a contradiction, not a paradox.

It's not irresolvable.

 

That's the most important part of a paradox!!

 

A contradiction shows itself, a paradox is unresolved contradiction. It truly isn't a contradiction, the concept simply extends further than what the person who claimed that it is a paradox assumed it did; they missed something.

 

All that is meant by omnipotence is having all power. Being all-powerful. That requires having all power that exists, not powers that don't exist. It would be a paradox if God was required to have impossible powers.

 

Impossible power's are included in the concept of omnipotence, which is where the paradox arises.

The problem isn't that, rather that the concept of impossibility need not apply to the concept of omnipotence because to omnipotence, possibility is a non-issue and thus so is impossibility. Therefore, asking if omnipotent beings can create a challenge impossible for him to perform, is irrelevant. It is like asking; what if mayonaise could fly?

 

In some people's minds that's what omnipotence implies. I wouldn't think it necessarily implies having powers that can't possibly exist, though. Just having all the power that does exist.

 

par·a·dox/ˈparəˌdäks/
Noun: A statement or proposition that, despite sound (or apparently sound) reasoning from acceptable premises, leads to a conclusion that seems senseless, logically unacceptable, or self-contradictory.

Just so you know :beatdeadhorse5:

 

How can you have powers that don't exist?? That's not the issue, the issue is why they don't exist and how the reasons why they don't exist do not apply to the concept of omnipotence.

 

Contradiction

Definition

a : a proposition, statement, or phrase that asserts or implies both the truth and falsity of something.

This is why it is a contradiction not a paradox for god to create a challenge that is impossible to him.

On the one hand he can create a challenge, but on the other impossible doesn't apply to him.

 

Omnipotency is the paradox, for god to create a challenge that is impossible to him is one of the contradictions you could derive from seemingly sound logic to underline the fact that it is a paradox.

*Points to thread title and shrugs*

 

Well you can't. The paradox is stating that God ought to be able to do something impossible in order to be omnipotent, which, we agree, doesn't make any sense.

It's just stupid to say God isn't God because God can't do impossible things. If you're talking about an entity with all the power that exists, there you go. It's a moot point to be like, "Oh, well...all you possess is...all possible power. But you can't do impossible things! You're not so great!"

 

God cannot have all powerful ability if he doesn't have the ability to do the impossible.

Just chew on that for a while, you'll see what I mean.

 

What about the Devil?
Most people who believe in God also believe in the Devil. Or at least Christians are supposed to. In this case God doesn't even posses all possible powers because he co-exists in a universe with the Devil. Any person who believes both God is omnipotent and exists with the Devil is clearly lying to themselves about the abilities of their God. The old testament depicted a God who was undermined and manipulated by the Devil to torture his own creation. That's not all knowing and all powerful, that's not even close.

 

Well that's the whole point. You can believe in logic and God simultaneously, but then you have to rule out certain things, like free will and the Devil.

 

So, you're saying that omnipotency is a paradox?

Of course all-powerful ability would mean he can do the impossible, which means that he can't create an impossible task, which means that he can't do the impossible because it's impossible for him to create a task that is impossible for him to do which means he can do the impossible but because he can do it it's not impossible and so on.

Such is the nature of paradoxes. I shall post here no more.

 

It isn't impossible for an omnipotent being to do anything.

An omnipotent being is also capable of creating a task without using any of his own powers(another thing one might consider impossible). The concept of impossible doesn't apply to an omnipotent being. There is no paradox, that just what an omnipotent' can do. As soon as you say he has every power, he can do the impossible.

It's not a paradox, its resolvable. Just recognize that when you give something all power the outcome is such that we can't understand. To us, impossibility is limiting to omnipotence it isn't.

There is no paradox, just the conclusion that to omnipotent beings impossible is possible.

 

That's a great argument. I use it a lot.

I like mine however more because it gets to the specifics about why it would have been impossible for a god with all powers to create us and be angry at us.