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Can God Create a Stone Too Heavy for God to Lift?

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Can God Create a Stone Too Heavy for God to Lift? Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? Kenneth L. Pearce Ussher Assistant Professor in Berkeley Studies (Early Modern Philosophy) Trinity College Dublin February 6, 2018 Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 1 / 28 Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? 1 Philosophical Theology 2 Some Puzzles About Omnipotence 3 Some Theories of Omnipotence Act Theories Result Theories Modified Result Theories 4 The Stone Paradox 5 Giving Up Omnipotence? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 2 / 28 Philosophical Theology 1 Philosophical Theology 2 Some Puzzles About Omnipotence 3 Some Theories of Omnipotence Act Theories Result Theories Modified Result Theories 4 The Stone Paradox 5 Giving Up Omnipotence? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 3 / 28 One Approach (`Natural (A)Theology') Starts `from scratch' and attempts to use philosophical reasoning to support a position about whether God exists and/or what God is like. A Second Approach Uses philosophical tools to analyze theological claims, evaluate them for consistency, and identify their entailments. Philosophical Theology Definition Philosophical thought about God. Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 4 / 28 A Second Approach Uses philosophical tools to analyze theological claims, evaluate them for consistency, and identify their entailments. Philosophical Theology Definition Philosophical thought about God. One Approach (`Natural (A)Theology') Starts `from scratch' and attempts to use philosophical reasoning to support a position about whether God exists and/or what God is like. Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 4 / 28 Philosophical Theology Definition Philosophical thought about God. One Approach (`Natural (A)Theology') Starts `from scratch' and attempts to use philosophical reasoning to support a position about whether God exists and/or what God is like. A Second Approach Uses philosophical tools to analyze theological claims, evaluate them for consistency, and identify their entailments. Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 4 / 28 Philosophical Theology It seems we have a duty with respect to these common and well-known views, however false we believe them, not to ignore what is said about them. We owe this civility, or rather this justice, not to their falsity, because it certainly does not deserve it, but to the persons who are so taken by these views, so as not to reject what they value without examining it. So by taking the trouble to study these topics, we can reasonably purchase the right to hold them in contempt. { Antoine Arnauld and Pierre Nicole, Logic or the Art of Thinking (1662), tr. Jill Buroker, p. 12 Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 5 / 28 Step Two Is this claim internally consistent? Does it make sense? Step Three What else does this claim imply? Are these implications acceptable? Step Four Is this a reasonable thing to believe? Four Steps Step One What does this claim even mean? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 6 / 28 Step Three What else does this claim imply? Are these implications acceptable? Step Four Is this a reasonable thing to believe? Four Steps Step One What does this claim even mean? Step Two Is this claim internally consistent? Does it make sense? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 6 / 28 Step Four Is this a reasonable thing to believe? Four Steps Step One What does this claim even mean? Step Two Is this claim internally consistent? Does it make sense? Step Three What else does this claim imply? Are these implications acceptable? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 6 / 28 Four Steps Step One What does this claim even mean? Step Two Is this claim internally consistent? Does it make sense? Step Three What else does this claim imply? Are these implications acceptable? Step Four Is this a reasonable thing to believe? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 6 / 28 Question What is meant by the word `omnipotent' (or `almighty')? Problem If God is omnipotent, does that imply that God can create a stone too heavy for God to lift? Omnipotence and the Stone Revelation 19:6 \the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 7 / 28 Problem If God is omnipotent, does that imply that God can create a stone too heavy for God to lift? Omnipotence and the Stone Revelation 19:6 \the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" Question What is meant by the word `omnipotent' (or `almighty')? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 7 / 28 Omnipotence and the Stone Revelation 19:6 \the Lord God omnipotent reigneth" Question What is meant by the word `omnipotent' (or `almighty')? Problem If God is omnipotent, does that imply that God can create a stone too heavy for God to lift? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 7 / 28 Some Puzzles About Omnipotence 1 Philosophical Theology 2 Some Puzzles About Omnipotence 3 Some Theories of Omnipotence Act Theories Result Theories Modified Result Theories 4 The Stone Paradox 5 Giving Up Omnipotence? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 8 / 28 \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) Make 2 + 2 = 5? Learn? Fail? Further Problems \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) Learn? Fail? Further Problems \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Make 2 + 2 = 5? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) Fail? Further Problems \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Make 2 + 2 = 5? Learn? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) Further Problems \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Make 2 + 2 = 5? Learn? Fail? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) Further Problems \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Make 2 + 2 = 5? Learn? Fail? Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Make 2 + 2 = 5? Learn? Fail? Further Problems \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 \God Can do Anything" Draw a round square? Make 2 + 2 = 5? Learn? Fail? Further Problems \it was impossible for God to lie" (Hebrews 6:18) \God cannot be tempted with evil" (James 1:13) Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 9 / 28 All of the students in the universe? All of the students at this university? All of the students enrolled in the module? All of the students who sat for the exam? \All of the students passed the exam." All of what students?! Domain of Discourse The collection of things we are talking about; the things included in `all'. Question What is the domain of discourse when we say `God can do all things'? Domains of Discourse \All confess that God is omnipotent; but it seems difficult to explain in what His omnipotence precisely consists: for there may be doubt as to the precise meaning of the word `all' when we say God can do all things" (Aquinas, Summa Theologica I, q. 25, a. 3) Kenneth L. Pearce (Trinity College) Can God Create a Stone too Heavy for God to Lift? February 6, 2018 10 / 28 All of the students in the universe? All of the students at this university? All of the students enrolled in the module? All of the students who sat for the exam? \All of the students passed the exam." All of what students?! Domain of Discourse The collection of things we are talking about; the things included in `all'.
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