Omnipotence

Omnipotence is a very interesting concept.

Many religions believe that an omnipotent god exists, but equally as many believe that one doesn't. I had a discussion the other day in my philosophy class that I would like to share with all of you. First, I will pose the question to you, and then you can answer it before I declare my beliefs in the matter. If you don't like that idea, you can just read on from the following paragraph straight into my response. It's really up to you.

The question was as follows:

Could an Omnipotent make it so that rules that could never be broken could be broken? For example: 2+3=5. Could an Omnipotent being make it so that 2+3=6 without changing the way you perceived the world?

What do you, my readers, have to say about this? Before you answer the question, take a look at this guys name: is that not one of coolest names you've ever seen? Alistair. Don't you feel like he should be wearing royal robes and a crown? Anyhow, back to the main question. What do you think?

My class said "No, because math is math, and it follows the same basic rules regardless of how you treat it. Because of this, the end result would always be five if you took two and three and added them up. Not even an omnipotent being could change that."

If you were thinking something along the lines of my class, allow me to share with you just how wrong you really are. It's rather simple really, if you think about it. It's all in the definition of the key word being used here: Omnipotent. Omnipotence means all knowing and all powerful. I don't much like using bold to make a point, but I can't help it I'm afraid. If I were to try and emphasize the importance of that definition through my words, it would take me hours. So, instead, it's bolded to let you know that every time you start questioning this response, an omnipotent being is ALL knowing and ALL powerful.

If a being were omnipotent, it would have the ability to do whatever it wanted whenever it wanted. If it wanted to, it certainly could make 2+3=6. It could, using it's unlimited power, make it so that every time you took two of an item and put them with three of another item, a sixth item poofed out of thin air and you had six. It would simply be the way things were, and you would not have changed your understanding of math, but instead have learned that if you have two, and add three, you always get six.

The biggest problem with this argument is, however, that it is self defeating. Why would an omnipotent being ever want to do this? It's omnipotent, and therefor knows the end result of every conceivable event already. What motivation would it have to do anything? The only reason an omnipotent being would act would be if it couldn't possibly know what happened next, because if it already knew, it would have essentially already have done it in its mind and therefor would not be concerned with trying again.

Omnipotence is a very, very interesting concept.