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Single Idea 6224
[filed under theme 28. God / A. Divine Nature / 4. Divine Contradictions
]
Full Idea
Omnipotent will cannot make things like or equal one to another, without the natures of likeness and equality.
Gist of Idea
An omnipotent will cannot make two things equal or alike if they aren't
Source
Ralph Cudworth (On Eternal and Immutable Morality [1688], Ch.II.I)
Book Ref
'British Moralists 1650-1800 Vol. 1', ed/tr. Raphael,D.D. [Hackett 1991], p.107
A Reaction
This is one of the many classic 'paradoxes of omnipotence'. The best strategy is to define omnipotence as 'being able to do everything which it is possible to do'. Anything beyond that is inviting paradoxical disaster.
The
17 ideas
with the same theme
[contradictions in our concept of a supreme being]:
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1719
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In Empedocles' theory God is ignorant because, unlike humans, he doesn't know one of the elements (strife)
[Aristotle on Empedocles]
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2630
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If Plato's God is immaterial, he will lack consciousness, wisdom, pleasure and movement, which are essential to him
[Cicero on Plato]
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2645
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Why shouldn't the gods fear their own destruction?
[Cicero]
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16651
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God can do anything non-contradictory, as making straightness with no line, or lightness with no parts
[Auriol]
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6224
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An omnipotent will cannot make two things equal or alike if they aren't
[Cudworth]
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21252
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Perfections must have overlapping parts if their incompatibility is to be proved
[Leibniz]
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2920
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A God who cures us of a head cold at the right moment is a total absurdity
[Nietzsche]
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18978
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It is hard to grasp a cosmic mind which produces such a mixture of goods and evils
[James]
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5208
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A person with non-empirical attributes is unintelligible.
[Ayer]
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3459
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You can only know the limits of knowledge if you know the other side of the limit
[Searle]
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8055
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If God is omniscient, he confronts no as yet unmade decisions, so decisions are impossible
[MacIntyre]
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7602
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In the Bible God changes his mind (repenting of creating humanity, in the Flood)
[Armstrong,K]
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16427
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Presumably God can do anything which is logically possible
[Chalmers]
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10332
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Omniscience is incoherent, since knowledge is a social concept
[Kusch]
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9122
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God cannot experience unwanted pain, so God cannot understand human beings
[Sorensen]
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3874
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How could God know there wasn't an unknown force controlling his 'free' will?
[PG]
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3873
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An omniscient being couldn't know it was omniscient, as that requires information from beyond its scope of knowledge
[PG]
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