Please read these 2 posts first:
For all, 3 | Omnipotence
For all, 3.2 | Omnipotence 2
You can find them by searching “omnipotence” using this blog’s search box.
— Me@2020-04-08 03:17:34 PM
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If X is omnipotent, X can create a stone that it cannot lift. Then X is not omnipotent, because there is a stone it cannot lift. So omnipotence is a self-contradictory concept.
What if we define omnipotence not as “being able to do anything” but as “being able to do anything except logical self-contradictory ones“?
In order words, omnipotence means that being able to do anything logically possible. Omnipotence does not mean that being able to do also logically impossible things.
This re-definition is not useful, because the original meaning of “being omnipotent” already is “being able to do anything except logical self-contradictory ones“.
There is no re-definition needed. You can only say that the re-definition clarifies the original meaning of “being omnipotent”. However, this clarification cannot eliminate the self-contradictory nature of the meaning of “omnipotence” itself. For example, the following argument is wrong.
If X is omnipotent, “X can create a stone that it cannot lift” is self-contradictory because it is contradictory to “X is omnipotent”.
Since “X can create a stone that it cannot lift” is logically impossible, it should not be a requirement of being omnipotent.
This argument is wrong because:
1. “X can create a stone that it cannot lift” is not SELF-contradictory.
2. “X can create a stone that it cannot lift” is not logically impossible, because, for example, even a human being can create an object that he cannot lift. For example, human beings can create a car that no single person can lift.
Then someone might keep arguing that
But if X is omnipotent, “X can create a stone that it cannot lift” means that “X is omnipotent and X can create a stone it cannot lift”, which is logically impossible. So “X cannot create a stone that it cannot lift” does not make X non-omnipotent.
In other words, “whether X can create a stone that it cannot lift” should not be the requirement of the omnipotence test.
The argument is wrong, because what we are questioning is
Can someone X be omnipotent?
or
Is omnipotence logically possible?
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Remember:
“Being logically possible” means “not self-contradictory”.
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If “X is omnipotent” is true,
then “X can create a stone that it cannot lift” is true.
Then “there is a stone that X cannot lift” is true.
Then “X is not omnipotent” is true.
But “X is not omnipotent” is contradictory to the assumption “X is omnipotent“.
So “X is omnipotent” is self-contradictory.
So the question “whether an entity X can be omnipotent and create a stone that it cannot lift” is illegitimate because “an entity X is omnipotent” is logically impossible in the first place. It should not be placed within a question.
Note that our omnipotent test is
“whether an entity X can create a stone that it cannot lift”,
NOT “whether an entity X can be omnipotent and create a stone that it cannot lift”,
NOR “whether an omnipotent entity X can create a stone that it cannot lift”.
— Me@2020-03-30 06:52:58 AM
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2020.04.10 Friday (c) All rights reserved by ACHK
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