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Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Can God create a rock he cannot lift?


Can God create a rock he cannot lift?
(Chinese version after English) 神能否做出一塊祂搬不到的石?


We will need to use the Proof by Contradiction:


Definition of Proof by contradiction:
If there is a sentence named "P", if we need to prove P is false, then we can try to assume that P is true first, then logically write down what we know about P. If it ends up something contradict P, then P must be false.

P => Q => S => …….=> ~P    (~P means not P)

Of course, "Q, S...." statements must be true.
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Proof: God can create a rock he cannot lift.

First, people want to proof this because they want to proof that God is not almighty. Of course, we need to assume God is Almighty.

If God is almighty (P), then God can create any rock.(Q)
If God can create any rock, then God can create a rock he cannot lift. (S)
If there is a rock that God cannot lift (T), then God is not Almighty(~P)
If God cannot create this rock(Q), then God is not Almighty(~Q)

So P is wrong!!!!!!!! God is not almighty!!!!!!!!

***NNNN NO NO No no no oooo ***

There is something wrong in the proof. "S" is contradict "P". This is logically wrong and contradict to the hypothesis (God is Almighty). This is the same thing as when we ask somebody to create a "circular square" which is contradicting itself.

Therefore, please do not ask me anymore about if God can create a rock he cannot lift. Thank you.

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CHINESE VERSION
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先要明白這推論所用的方法:

We will use the PROOF BY CONTRADICTION
假設有一個句子P。若要証明P是假的或錯的,只要能作以下一連串的邏輯推論:
P => Q => S => …….=> ~P    (~P即not P)
若中間所有的步驟在邏輯上沒有錯誤,那麼即說明由P這假設開始,竟能推論出 ~P!

那麼問題一定在P本身!P一定是一句錯或假的句子了。這叫做「反証法」(proof by contradiction)。這方法的特色就是要從一個假設開始。


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「神能否做一塊祂舉不起的石頭 ?」

本身就是想使用反証法來推翻「神是無所不能的」這假設的。
它背後的過程是:假設「神是全能的」(P)
=> 如果神是全能的 , 祂必定能造出任何石頭 (Q)
=> 但如果神能造出任何石頭, 祂必定能做一塊祂舉不起的石頭 (S)
=> 那麼就有一塊石頭是祂舉不起的(T)
=> 祂就並非全能(~P);
=> 若果神不能造出一塊這樣的石頭(~Q)
=> 那麼祂也不是全能的(~P)。


以符號來表達,P => Q => ( S => T => ~P) or (~S => ~Q => ~P) => ~P∴ P本身不能成立。



因此,「神是無所不能的」這假設不成立。

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不過,S本身已經和預先假設了的P有矛盾,因為S的意思是指有一塊神舉不起的石頭存在,這與最初的假設P有矛盾,在這情況下,邏輯上不能將S應用在申述之內。另外~S的意思是指有一塊石頭是神不能造出的,本身與P這假設有矛盾,也不能應用在申述之內。因此,在假設了神是全能的前題下,我們不能用「神能否造塊祂舉不起的石頭?」來否定這前設。總括來說,若假設了神全能是對的,這一句:「神能造塊祂舉不起的石頭 or 祂不能造塊祂舉不起的石頭」是一句內在矛盾的句子,就如「神能造個方形的圓 or 神不能造個方形的圓」矛盾一樣。(「方形的圓」的矛盾很容易看到,因為方和圓並不相容;而上述句子的矛盾是因「神是無所不能的」這前設下產生的.)



Thank you,

[P.S:


Note: One possible objection to this line of reasoning is "God is not bound by the rules of logic, as he created logic, therefore he can do the logically impossible as they are only logically impossible from our point of view". If this were the case, however, it would seem to be impossible for anyone to ever know anything about God at all, or attempt to understand him using reason and logic. It would make no sense for any theist to attempt to describe the character of their god as, for instance "good, merciful and loving" because there would be no reason to think that this could be true. You could not say, for example, that God is good because he has healed a person, as an illogical God could just as easily have done it for any reason at all other than goodness - by our standards it might appear to be "good", but that would be no reason to assume that it was good as far as God was concerned. ]



Ah B

Monday, April 20, 2009

My 1st Macintosh Computer

Recently, I got a new Mac computer. Yes, it is expensive. I of course have my reason to get it, but the reason is not important to put it here.

However, there is a good and close friend of mine keep saying that Apple inc. donates money to support same-sex marriage which has conflict with my Catholic religion catechism. Before, I think that she just wants to remind me and will stop saying this after 1 or 2 days. However, she keeps saying this. I somehow want to say "What do you want? I have my reason to get this laptop which you know it!!!! Stop criticizing my decision and my lovely Mac book!!!"

Of course, The reason I sound mad is somehow, I agree on her too. LOL... this idea keeps running in my brain days and days and days... (Yes, actually can't sleep Then, I opened my Bible and read the following scripture:

Tribute to Caesar (Matthew 22:15-22)

    ...then the Pharisees went and plotted together how they might trap Him in what He said. And they sent their disciples to Him, along with the Herodians, saying, "Teacher, we know that You are truthful and teach the way of God in truth, and defer to no one; for You are not partial to any.

    "Tell us then, what do You think? Is it lawful to give a poll-tax to Caesar, or not?" But Jesus perceived their malice, and said, "Why are you testing Me, you hypocrites?"Show Me the coin used for the poll-tax." And they brought Him a denarius. And He said to them, "Whose likeness and inscription is this?"

    They said to Him, "Caesar's." Then He said to them, "Then render to Caesar the things that are Caesar's; and to God the things that are God's."

    And hearing this, they were amazed, and leaving Him, they went away.
Of course, I understand that buying a computer from Mac is totally different from paying tax to government. One thing came to my mind is that should we still pay tax to Canada government although we know that they are using our money to support "abortion, contraception, same-sex marriage, war...etc" which are also conflicting our faith. According to Jesus, I think, yes, we should still pay tax. Not paying tax will not help on these situations. As a catholic, we should try our best to influence the government to avoid these kind of things.

As a Mac user now, I will try to send a letter to Apple Inc. and tell them my point of view. Also, as a catholic, we should keep doing evangilisation, teach people the "truth". Last Saturday in the Mandarin Sunday School class, one of my students asked me a very interesting question, "Do you think if a person hurts another person because he does not have a chance to learn anything about love, God or Jesus, will that person still goes to hell after he died?" My answer is, "I don't know. However, Jesus may blame to some of us (Catholic), because we did not do our job well which is ... " The 12-year-old kid said immidiately, "EVANGILISATION!!!!"... haha

Of course, I still don't know if my decision on buying a Mac is right or wrong, but I am sure that God knows what I am doing, and believe me or not, he (God) will "contact" me very quickly if I have something wrong.

with love,
Ah B