The Omnipotence Paradox
Before we started our unit on theology, we first discussed what we knew about different religion's concepts of God, looking for similarities and differences. One of the common themes was a belief in the omnipotence of God. We used this concept as the start of a discussion about the omnipotence paradox: Can God create a rock that he cannot move? Nightingale form had a two hour long debate about this paradox, and still haven't resolved it! Different pupils came to different conclusions:
- If God put the unmoveable rock on earth it would be moving, because the earth is always moving. But God could create the unmoveable rock outside of the universe that we know. Maybe heaven or hell doesn't move like earth does? Or he could stop the world moving, and the rock would be unmoving then (Danny R)
- I don't think God can really be omnipotent. He can be very, very powerful, and more powerful than anything else in the universe, but this paradox shows that he cannot be omnipotent. (Craig)
- If he is omnipotent he should be able to make anything, but he can also move anything, but both of those things can't be possible. It's like we did with Mr Brown, it's proving the beginning bit isn't true by the contradiction that comes later. (James)
- It's impossible to create an unmoveable rock. We are doing particle physics with Miss Flett in Science, and if something is a solid the particles are still moving, they vibrate, so a rock will always move. (Kyle)
- God can make anything, so he can make an unmoveable rock. If then he wants to move it, he could divide it in two, because breaking something isn't the same as moving it, then he could move both bits and then the rock hasn't moved, but it would still be somewhere else (Connor)