"Can God create a rock He cannot lift?"

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"Can God create a rock He cannot lift?"

...is something we all know that fools, professing themselves to be wise, get a perverse kick out of saying.

Here's the thing, though: God, because He is omnipotent, can lift any rock, every rock, and all rocks. Thus, every rock is a rock God can lift; the set of all rocks is one and the same as the set of all rocks God can lift.

When the fool says "Can God create a rock He cannot lift?" one, and only one, of these two, following things is true: by his phrase, "a rock He can lift," either 1) the fool is referring to a rock, or 2) the fool is not referring to any rock.

Since every rock is a rock God can lift, then, if by his phrase, "a rock He cannot lift," the fool is referring to a rock, the fool is thereby, of necessity (and whether he likes it or not), referring to a rock God can lift. Who, but a fool, would choose to use a phrase like "a rock He cannot lift" or "a rock God cannot lift" to refer to a rock God can lift? Yet, that is the fool's only option, if he wants to be referring to a rock, at all, by his silly phrase, "a rock God cannot lift": to be referring to a rock God can lift. The fool cannot be referring to a rock without referring to a rock God can lift. So, if the fool says, "Can God create a rock He cannot lift?" and is, by his phrase, "a rock He cannot lift," referring to a rock, then the fool is actually, therein, asking us this question: "Can God create [a rock He CAN lift]?" Well, duh, silly fool: obviously God can create a rock He can lift.
 
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