God paradox
The god paradox is a philosophical problem. It say
- If a god can do anything, can she create a mountain so large, she can't lift it herself?
This is an example of a paradox, which is a logical controversy. Something which seems to contradict itself! Some people believe the god paradox is evidence for the fact that god can't do everything, but there are other solutions.
The god paradox is also a good example of a philosophical problem. There is not just one solution, but many. There isn't a correct solution.
- One solution might be, that god can be in conflict with herself. So there is no problem, as god can contradict the world.
- Another solution might be, that god can do anything she wishes to. So if she wishes to give away her powers and create a mountain she actually can't lift, then she can do so. While she does that, she voluntarily gives away her powers. She can still do anything she wishes, except lift that mountain.
- At least one more solution exists. There is a section of philosophy called analytical philosophy which is very popular in philosophy nowadays. In analytic philosophy, you start by breaking the problem into smaller pieces and try to solve each little piece. We first take the original problem and try to break it to smaller statements.
- Can X create Y?
- Y is a mountain...
- ...so large, even she who can lift anything cannot lift it
- And here we see, that the last sentence is nonsense. If someone can lift anything how couldn't they lift the mountain? In analytical philosophy, statements are either true, false or meaningless. This is an example of a meaningless sentence. So this solution says that there isn't an answer, because the question is meaningless.