Contradiction of logic. What is it exactly? In order to fully understand the meaning of the phrase we must first understand the meaning of both contradiction and logic. According to dictionary.com, logic is the science that investigates the principle governing correct or reliable inference. A contradiction is a direct opposition between things compared or an inconsistency. Just to make things clear and inconsistency is something lacking in harmony between different parts or elements. From the information gathered by these two definitions we can understand that a contradiction of logic is an opposition between two elements of something that can be understood through a science that investigates the principle governing correct or reliable inference, or simple an opposition in something that is known as correct.
Logic is the basic element of fact. It is the thought process that, from the beginning of time has allowed us to understand what we know as fact today. Logic is always evolving, though the outcome of the process may be incorrect, the process itself can never be wrong. If something contradicts logic then is cannot exist, because logic is the only thing that is absolutely certain.
For those of you who know me, or for those of you who simply read the title of my blog, you know that I am going to use this simple phrase to prove the simple fact that god or gods cannot and do not exist.
The god of the Bible is said to have three distinct characteristics that make him God. These are that he is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent. This means that God is all powerful, all knowing, and is everywhere at once.
Now using simple logic we can deduct that all three must be present in a being in order for one of the characteristics to exist. For example if you do not know everything then you are not all powerful and you can’t know everything unless you can be everywhere at once. All three attributes rely on the other in order for on single attribute to exist. You can’t have one without the other.
Now, here comes the part where I throw this all together and you get mad at me.
A good friend of mine once posed a simple question to me. “Can an all powerful and all seeing God create a box to which he cannot see inside?” My response was nothing more than a puzzled look on my face. The truth is he cannot. If he were to create such a box then he would not be all knowing because he can’t see in the box, and if he could see in the box then he would not be all powerful because he was unable to create such a box. This is called a contradiction of logic.
Now, I realize that some groups in Christianity do not believe that god is all knowing. (I don’t get this because why then do you pray if he can’t know what you are saying) But just you amuse you let me pose another scenario, only this time I will have omnipotence contradict itself. “Can an all powerful god create a rock that he cannot move?” The answer is no he can’t, because if he could not move the rock then he would not be all powerful and if he could not create such a rock then again he would not be all powerful.
The Fact is that the very definition of God contradicts itself. Those three things would have to exist together in order for one of them to exist, but yet if all three of them existed then they would contradict each other meaning that none of them existed.
The contradictions of the Bible mean nothing when the very definition of God proves itself wrong. Nothing can be all powerful, nothing can be all knowing, and nothing can be everywhere at once. These things cannot and do not exist.
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Hi,
ReplyDeleteStumbled across your blog. Just so you know, I'm a theist--a Christian, in fact, but contrary to what you anticipate in your post, I'm not mad at you. I should just point out that no classical theist need feel alarmed by the results of your study. They *will* agree with your claim that, necessarily, nothing exists whose existence entails a contradiction (say, by its possession of incompatible properties). They will just *disagree* that God's omni-properties are incompatible. And it turns out they have good grounds for doing so. What I'm about to say are fairly standard replies to these.
Consider the rock too heavy to move. What is the particular ability that God is supposed to lack such that it is incompatible with his omnipotence? On your example, it's something like "being capable of moving something too heavy to move." The problem is that the property itself is incoherent. Consider a similar ability God lacks: the ability to create round squares. Being a round square is literally an incoherent state of affairs, which is to say, an impossible state of affairs. The problem is that no classical theist (or the Bible for that matter) takes the doctrine of omnipotence to say that God can do the logically impossible, so examples of this sort hardly show a problem with it.
What of the example of the other ability, namely, the power to create a box the insides of which cannot be seen? I suggest the following change to give the example more punch and to make features of it clearer. Call it "the power to create something which is such that certain facts about it are unknowable". (Make this change because we're wanting the example to be one that purports to threaten omniscience, in addition to omnipotence). Now, what would it be for a purported fact to be unknowable? The only feature that could make a purported fact unknowable in principle would be just if it were...false. There's nothing remarkable or controversial about that: it's just entailed by any standard account of knowledge itself (on any account of knowledge, it entails the truth of what's known), not by any feature of the doctrine of omnipotence. Therefore, the power that you contend threatens God's omniscience ends up reducing to this: the ability to know a falsehood. That's not exactly a threat because all it shows is that omniscience is consistent with the definition of knowledge; that is hardly a mark *against* omniscience. And because knowing a falsehood is itself a logically impossible state of affairs, omnipotence is likewise in no trouble (for reasons stated earlier) if God lacks the ability to create a box the insides of which he cannot see.
You seem like a thoughtful person. I wonder if you would be interested in being pointed to names of cutting edge academics writing on this subject in defense of theism. There are many. And they are products of (and are faculty at) our top institutions.