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The Sense and Nonsense of Omnipotence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 October 2008

Paul Grimley Kuntz
Affiliation:
Chairman, Department of Philosophy, Emory University

Extract

In that ‘Cock and Bull’ story, Tristram Shandy, Laurence Sterne satirises philosophic disputation. Since the subject is a nose, the philosophers, divided already along Catholic and Lutheran lines, become Nosarians and Anti-nosarians. The doctors belong to the two universities of Strasburg. On ‘which side of the nose [would] the two universities split’?

'Tis above reason, cried the doctors on one side.

'Tis below reason, cried the others.

'Tis faith, we cried.

'Tis a fiddle-stick, said the other.

'Tis possible, cried the one.

'Tis impossible, said the other.

God's power is infinite, cried the Nosarians, he can do anything.

He can do nothing, cried the Antinosarians, which implies contradictions.

He can make matter think, said the Nosarians.

As certainly as you can make a velvet cap out of a sow's ear, replied the Antinosarians.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1968

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References

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Omitted from this version, probably on grounds of the kind of barbarism denounced by Whitehead:

Surely thou wilt slay the wicked, O God: depart from me therefore, ye bloody men…

Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee?…

I hate them with perfect hatred: I count them mine enemies. (King James Version, w. 19–22)

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