Can God Make a Rock so Big…?

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Can God Make a Rock so Big…?

I remember when I first had this question brought to my attention.  I was sitting in a coffee shop a block from my college campus.  I had just talked with my roommate who had just wrecked on his bicycle going to meet a girl and his face looked like he had just lost a fight with a bear (apparently his face absorbed most of the impact generated by his flailing body).  My friend Sean put the question out there, “Can God make a rock so big that he cannot lift it?”  I felt a lot like my friend’s face looked, the mass and gravity of the question registered with me.  I had just finished my first philosophy class and all I could muster at the time was, “Can a car be too fast, can you have too much fun, or can a girl be too pretty?”  My distraction highlighted the contradiction apparent in the question, but this was not a satisfactory answer in my mind.  I logged the question for another day.

Philosophers and layman alike, have long pondered this question.  The root of the problem is that if one affirms that God can make a rock so big that he cannot lift it, then it affirms that God cannot do everything and he is not omnipotent (or all powerful).  If one affirms that God can lift anything, then once again, God is limited, because he cannot make a rock big enough (thus not omnipotent).  The root of the question is whether God is able to contradict Himself or thwart Himself.  The over-arching argument that accompanies this question, is that God is not omnipotent and the very concept of omnipotence is contradictory.

However, the question highlights a misunderstanding of omnipotence and a crucial misunderstanding of physics. 

Omnipotence does not equate to the power or ability to do all things, regardless of logical coherence.  In other words, omnipotence does not require the ability to perform contradictory tasks or actualizing logically impossible circumstances.[1]  God cannot make a square circle.[2]  Also, God would not make a rock so big or heavy that he could not lift it, because it would be against His character (omnibenevolent and omniscient).

Here, Millard Erickson performs some heavy lifting and offers another helpful observation highlighting the misunderstanding of mass and gravity.  If God made an infinite sized rock, there would be no other physical object large enough to attract it or for it to attract (no gravity).[3] Therefore, a rock of infinite size would be weightless.  Thus, once again highlighting that the question posed is a bad question.  

This raises a more salient question.  Can a finite being trump an infinite God with a question?


[1] Douglas Groothuis, Christian Apologetics: A Comprehensive Case For Biblical Faith (Downers Grove, IL: Intervarsity Press, 2011), 197.
[2] Ibid., 197.
[3] Millard J. Erickson, Christian Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Publishing Group, 2013), 248.

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