Question:
Answer:
This is a classic fallacy by which some non-believers think they can checkmate Christians—or other believers in God—into conceding that belief in God is absurd by placing them in a Catch-22 situation, i.e., one in which there is no apparent escape, because you’re darned if you do, and darned if you don’t
In this case or scenario, if God is omnipotent and thus all-powerful, he can do anything. And if he can do anything, that means he can make a rock so big that he can’t pick it up, which therefore means he’s not actually omnipotent, because he couldn’t lift that big rock. And if you reply there’s nothing God could make, including a big rock, that he couldn’t pick up, then the reply would be, well, then that just proves God isn’t omnipotent after all, because he can’t make a rock so big that he couldn’t pick it up. Which means he really can’t do anything and everything. Gotcha! And thus the alleged absurdity in believing that God can really exist.
However, this alleged sound argument is actually a fallacy, because it involves reasoning to a conclusion without the evidence to support that conclusion. It’s an example of sophistry, in which specious reasoning is used, i.e., reason which has the allure or attraction of truth but which is shown to be deficient upon closer examination.
Consequently, if someone asks you the “rock so big” question, you can refute their fallacy with this calm and confident reply:
Do you mean can someone who is unlimited be limited? Because if you grant as true that God can do anything as you have, then he necessarily can’t be limited. And so what you propose in your question is something logically untenable, something that isn’t or can’t be real, because your conclusion is not consistent with the initial premise upon which you’ve based your argument, namely, that there can exist a diving being who is truly omnipotent/unlimited.
In other words, an omnipotent creator necessarily can’t be limited by anything he creates, including a big rock or the reality of time, because time and space applies to the created universe, not the uncreated God.
Similarly, some people fallaciously argue that God can’t know everything because, if he did, then everything would be predetermined and thus we wouldn’t have free will. To the contrary, all time is present to God because he’s omnipotent and omniscient, and so God is not waiting to see how history unfolds in our lives and those of others. If that were not the case, then God wouldn’t and couldn’t be the all-powerful and all-knowing being we proclaim, which means he wouldn’t be a God worthy of the name.
In fact, God’s knowing all of history doesn’t preclude his giving us free will in our lives to accept or reject him, nor lovingly giving us opportunities to turn from sin and reconcile with him. That is truly a scenario befitting an omnipotent, omniscient and all-loving God.