Paradox is meaningless: the question is sophistry Another common response is that since God is supposedly omnipotent, the phrase "could not lift" does not make sense and the paradox is meaningless.The Problem of Pain, Clive Staples Lewis, 1944 MacMillanLoving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion by Paul Copan, Chalice Press, 2007 page 46 This may mean that the complexity involved in rightly understanding omnipotence—contra all the logical details involved in misunderstanding it—is a function of the fact that omnipotence, like infinity, is perceived at all by contrasting reference to those complex and variable things, which it is not. An alternative meaning, however, is that a non-corporeal God cannot lift anything, but can raise it (a linguistic pedantry)—or to use the beliefs of Hindus (that there is one God, who can be manifest as several different beings) that whilst it is possible for God to do all things, it is not possible for all his incarnations to do them. As such, God could create a stone so heavy that, in one incarnation, he could not lift it, yet could do something that an incarnation that could lift the stone could not.
paradox is meaningless the question is sophistry another common response is that since god is supposedly omnipotent the phrase "could not lift" does not make sense and the paradox is meaninglessthe problem of pain clive staples lewis 1944 macmillanloving wisdom christian philosophy of religion by paul copan chalice press 2007 page 46 this may mean that the complexity involved in rightly understanding omnipotence—contra all the logical details involved in misunderstanding it—is a function of the fact that omnipotence like infinity is perceived at all by contrasting reference to those complex and variable things which it is not an alternative meaning however is that a non-corporeal god cannot lift anything but can raise it (a linguistic pedantry)—or to use the beliefs of hindus (that there is one god who can be manifest as several different beings) that whilst it is possible for god to do all things it is not possible for all his incarnations to do them as such god could create a stone so heavy that in one incarnation he could not lift it yet could do something that an incarnation that could lift the stone could not