Page "The nature of God in Western theology" Paragraph 11

Second, we say that God is " all-powerful ," or to say the same thing, omnipotent.

Some philosophers have brought up some puzzles that are supposed to cast some doubt on whether the notion of omnipotence is coherent, or that are supposed to force us to rethink our notion of what omnipotence might be, anyway.

The basic notion of being all-powerful can be understood well enough, it seems, at first glance: something is omnipotent, or all-powerful, if the being can do anything we can think of.

But here is something we seem to be able to think of: a square circle.

We may not be able to imagine a square circle, and of course, such a notion is self-contradictory.

For all that, we do know what a square circle would be: a shape that is both square and circular.

One might argue, then, as follows: if God can do anything, then he could create an actual square circle.

But square circles, being self-contradictory, cannot exist.

Does this mean that it is in God's capacity to do impossible things?

But this example is only impossible in the time space reality in which we live that is governed by universal laws.

Since God created these laws along with His universe using His omnipotence, He has demonstrated two things.

One, that He has no desire to create a square-circle.

Two, that He indeed could.

He merely would choose to create a reality with different universal laws, since they are at His discretion via His omnipotence.