The Omnipotence Paradox

Welcome Steemit readers. As this is my first true posting, outside of introducing myself, I thought that I'd set the bar high by taking on the eternal Omnipotence Paradox and why I describe myself as an agnostic.

This comes out of a joke about mathematicians, of all things. The joke deals with an engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician who are asked to build a fence to enclose some livestock. There are multiple versions of this joke, but the one that I'll be using can be found near the bottom of this page: http://www.math.psu.edu/tseng/profession.html

**Note that I have no connection to Penn State nor their Math Department, but having earned a Bachelors in Mathematics at another US university, I can enjoy many of these jokes dealing with mathematicians.

Background
Throughout life, there have been many little things that have stuck with me. Various bits of phrases, songs, jokes, and what not that always seem to be there, popping up in my mind late at night when I can't sleep. Seemingly useless bits of wisdom mixed with a grand dose of US pop culture. Today, I will use one of these in an attempt to explain another.

During my time at college, I had a few professors that would, from time to time, make comments like "God is a mathematician." Their point would be that many things in nature can be explained through use of math and science, and that by studying how things work or how things grow, we can then make predictions on how they will be tomorrow, or next week, or next year and so on. Well, I'm not making any predictions here, but I will be using my knowledge of math to point out a common habit of human nature.

The Joke
An engineer, a physicist, and a mathematician are shown a pasture with a herd of sheep, and told to put them inside the smallest possible amount of fence. The engineer is first. He herds the sheep into a circle and then puts the fence around them, declaring, "A circle will use the least fence for a given area, so this is the best solution." The physicist is next. She creates a circular fence of infinite radius around the sheep, and then draws the fence tight around the herd, declaring, "This will give the smallest circular fence around the herd." The mathematician is last. After giving the problem a little thought, he puts a small fence around himself and then declares, "I define myself to be on the outside!"

I'm on the outside!
The version of the Omnipotence Paradox that I'll be using today asks "Can God create a rock so large that he can't move/lift it?"

Imagine that God creates a rock so large that inside, there exists vast holes and caverns, but is a rock that is able to be moved as a whole. Inside one such cavern he places a man. Now, from the view point of this man, this cavern is all that he can know, and is all that he would ever know. However, whenever God moves the whole rock, the man doesn't feel it and doesn't perceive the ground as moving. Therefore, the man believes that God cannot move the rock on which he stands.

The point of the joke, and the reason it is passed on to every student of mathematics, is that there is a difference between having an answer that works, and having a decent or the best answer that works (especially when dealing with the real world). Here, I'm also using the punch-line to point out that sometimes our perception limits the things we accept in this world. Just because I have not perceived something does not mean that it does not or could not exist. I still have many doubts about religion and have trouble taking things on "faith" alone, but I have come to acknowledge the fact that my perceptions of this world are limited and that there exist the possibilities of things existing beyond my perceptions.

Maybe one day I will "find" religion and become a believer in this or that. But for now, I'm content with letting other's believe what they choose so long as they do not infringe on my right to believe as I choose. Besides, this world has too many earthly problems that there is plenty to keep me busy for a long time without having to worry about what could be waiting after this life.

Hope everyone is enjoying a wonderful Easter, or just a wonderful day. Until next time,
The ACA