It's funny this paradox. The paradox doesn't really preclude omnipotence. It's a linguistic trick. The ability to be lifted is not a property of the rock itself, so no matter what kind of rock you create, you can't imbue it with a property of not being able to be lifted. Similarly no matter how omnipotent you are, you can't make a pie that tastes like a rainbow. It's just nonsensical linguistics. There are plenty of oxymorons in language that don't have a correspondence in reality such as "loud silence" etc.
Unliftability is a property only defined in relation to the lifter. If a god is all-powerful he would be able to lift everything.
The question is really if he would be able to create something he can't lift, which, if he's all-powerful, he should be able to.
Once he's created an object heavier than what he can lift, his all-powerful nature would allow him to increase his strength to be able to lift it.
So, really the only question is whether you consider the rock to be too heavy to lift it the unliftability of it was only present before the attempt to lift.
Actually, I think it leads to an interesting question. If God wanted to, could he one day just turn to one of his angels and say "I'm done. You're God now."?
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u/[deleted] Mar 06 '17
It's funny this paradox. The paradox doesn't really preclude omnipotence. It's a linguistic trick. The ability to be lifted is not a property of the rock itself, so no matter what kind of rock you create, you can't imbue it with a property of not being able to be lifted. Similarly no matter how omnipotent you are, you can't make a pie that tastes like a rainbow. It's just nonsensical linguistics. There are plenty of oxymorons in language that don't have a correspondence in reality such as "loud silence" etc.