Omnipotence

## Definition

**Omnipotence** is a concept that originates from the Latin *omnipotentĭa* . The term refers to a great power that can generally only be attributed to divinity. In this sense, omnipotence refers to unlimited power .

In the realm of religion , monotheism generally views omnipotence as part of God 's attributes . This means that God can do anything, for his power knows no limits, nor can it be exhausted. The usual thing is that omnipotence appears together with other supernatural abilities that make God also omnipresent (he is everywhere at once) and omniscient (he knows everything).

Without limitations, omnipotent divinity lies beyond the logic and connections of the physical world. Therefore, he is able to perform miracles , which are those actions that contradict or exceed the laws of physics . Almighty God can walk on water, turn water into wine, or resurrect, for example.

The extent of divine omnipotence has, in any case, been a matter of debate since antiquity. Some monotheistic currents believe that God is unable to manifest through the transgression of physics.

## Omnipotence Paradox

The paradox of omnipotence can be analyzed as a logical impossibility  , but not necessarily: Thomas Aquinas sees in it the result of our human inability to understand what omnipotence really is. In summary, the problem would come from the ambiguity of the verb “power”, which, in our language, designates:

* sometimes a real power ("I can see", "I can understand", "I can decide freely"),
* sometimes a simple logical possibility, which actually corresponds to a weakness (“I can fall”, “I can lose”, “I can die”).

For Thomas Aquinas , by saying that God “cannot” die, nor self-destruct, nor will anything contradictory, we are not denying God any real power; it is a powerlessness, a weakness that one excludes. The paradox comes from the fact that this impotence is conceived by our mind in a positive way as a possibility (“being able to die”), whereas it is, in reality, only a lack of power. Thomas also evokes the irreversibility of time willed by God to order things: God can restore all the attributes of virginity to a deflowered woman, but cannot do so that she has never been, because that would be if not to have wanted a thing and to want it not to have taken place,.

Thomas Aquinas did not deal with the paradox of omnipotence in its modern form ("paradox of the stone": *Could an almighty being create a stone so heavy that he himself could not wear it?* ), but it addresses the question of divine omnipotence and its limits.

For Thomas Aquinas , God can do whatever he wants, but he cannot contradict himself. He therefore cannot want at the same time a thing and its opposite (a square circle, for example  ).

## Scotist analysis

Duns Scotus questions the Thomistic solution by considering that the Almighty Power of God is not subject to the rules of our logic. It could therefore go as far as the absurd. This vision of divine omnipotence was more or less taken up in the 17th century  by René Descartes  .

## Analysis according to modern logic

To analyze the paradox according to modern logic, Peter Geach distinguishes and rejects four notions of omnipotence. It then defines and defends a lesser notion of the omnipotence of God

Here are, according to Peter Geach, these various notions of omnipotence (corresponding to different levels of omnipotence):

1. – Y i**s absolutely Omnipotence** means that Y can do absolutely anything, anything that can be expressed in a collection of words even if it may be contradictory, Y not being bound in his action, as we are by the thought and the laws of logic  . It is a point of view advanced by Descartes and having the theological advantage of detaching God from the laws of logic , but also with the theological disadvantage of making the firstfruits of God suspect. On these grounds, the omnipotence paradox is a genuine paradox, but genuine paradoxes could nonetheless be suspect.
2. – Y is **Omnipotence** means that Y can do X is true if and only if X is a purely logical description. This definition is close to the point of view formulated by Thomas Aquinas in his Summa Theologica  . This definition of omnipotence resolves some of the associated paradoxes but does not satisfy all logicians. Mavrodes notably objects that there is nothing contradictory about "creating something that its creator cannot lift" (a man could build a boat that he could not lift) . He adds that it would be strange if human beings could accomplish such a feat and an all-powerful being could not. Moreover, this definition of omnipotence is not enough to eliminate the problem that arises when X is morally or physically unrealizable for a being like God.
3. – Y is **Omnipotence** means that “Y can accomplish X” is true if and only if “Y accomplishes X” is purely logical. Here, the idea is to exclude any action that would not be acceptable in the field of pure logic for Y, even if it may be for others. Here Mavrode is dealing with the fact that X = "to make something that its creator cannot lift" is no longer a problem because "God makes X" is not purely logical. But this possibility does not solve certain moral questions like X "tells a lie" or temporal like X = "fact that Rome was never built"  .
4. – Y is **Omnipotence** because whenever “Y will accomplish X” is a logical possibility, then “Y can accomplish X” is true. This formula prohibits the paradox and contrary to definition 3, cancels any temporal problem concerning the possibility that an all-powerful being cancels the past. However, Geach even criticizes this version as a misunderstanding of God's promises  .
5. – Y is Almigty does not mean that Y is more powerful than any creature, but that no creature can compete with him. In this formulation, there is no paradox, but perhaps because God is then not considered to be almighty.

The notion of omnipotence can be applied to an entity in different ways. A being that is almighty by nature is an almighty entity. On the contrary, a being who is so by accident can only be omnipotent for a limited period. The paradox can then be applied differently .

## See Also

* Omnipresence
* Omniscience