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Stella Artois is not Vegetarian
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grufty jim
grufty jim
1978 posts

Re: oooh theology - my favourite!
Jan 15, 2003, 13:06
nope - y'see that's the *appearance* of paradox. Put simply, if you define the universe as "a place with an omnipotent diety" then you are defining out of existence any object too heavy for Him to lift. Such things *literally* have no meaning. It's like asking whether God could create "a completely black cat with white paws". If it is completely black; then it cannot have white paws. If it has white paws - it is not completely black. The inability of an omnipotent God to create such a thing is not a limitation upon His power; such a thing is literal nonsense. That cat cannot exist in a universe so long as we insist the concept of "completely black" by definition precludes "white paws"; just as an object too heavy for an omnipotent God to lift cannot exist in a universe where we insist "omnipotence" means what it does.

To Merrick's point; i'm afraid a simple "God doesn't intervene therefore he's a bastard or doesn't exist" don't really wash, theologically. Library-fulls of books have been written on the subject going back to Aquinas and beyond. I shan't go into the *many* sound rebuttals (within the context), but just because the majority of outspoken evangelical christians you meet haven't really thought their beliefs through; doesn't mean that there are not people who have. And who have come up with coherent and robust defences for their faith.

I am not a believer in an omnipotent judgemental God. The idea seems absurd to me on so many levels. But christianity would not have remained the dominant cultural meme for quarter the world's population for 2000 years (!) if it could be intellectually dismissed with a couple of pithy comments.

(i think)
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Re: oooh theology - my favourite! (Zastrozzi)
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