Are there things God j ust can't do which don't involve logical
incoherence? How about this , a puzzle raised by theologians in the
Middle Ages: Can God make a rock so heavy that he himself can
not lift it? If we say yes, then there could be a rock which God
could not lift, so it is not true that God can do anything. But if we
say no, then there is something God cannot do: make a rock too
heavy for him to lift.
We shouldn't be distracted by accidental features of this example
. O f course God, if he exists , is bigger than gravity, and would
not be bothered by anything being heavy ( though this might not
have been quite so clear iI,l the Middle Ages ) . The example could
equally well be : Can God make an object he cannot destroy? Can
God start a process he can't control? Can God make a person who
could successfully go against God's own will? These are all variants
of the question : can God do something which entails God being
limited?
At first, we might think that God's making a rock too heavy for
him to lift is just like God making a square circle: it involves a logical
contradiction and is therefore incoherent. But that can't be
exactly right. You and I can't make a square circle, any more than
God can . But you and I can easily make something too heavy for
us to lift. Many people have made houses or boats that they could
not lift. It's true that God making a rock too heavy for him to lift
is incoherent, but in this case the incoherence lies not in the nature
of the task but in the concept of omnipotence, if it's defined in a
particular way.
But still , a theist might say, God can make a rock of any weight,
without limit, and God can lift a rock of any weight, without limit,
so not much has been lost by the discovery that God cannot make
a rock he cannot lift. We can keep all the omnipotence worth having.
I agree, but the example does alert us to the possibility that
' God can do anything' may be misleading.
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