[orbisvicis]

Yeah I never really bought that language argument - the idea that the paradox arises solely from a schism between language and reality. I prefer to think eschatology solves the issue quite nicely. The omnipotent entity is the one for which such a situation never arises. Similarly if a universe evolves to give rise to God, who is to say that God was never present. Or all around us, really?

Either way I'd say Matthew 4:1 solves that paradox in a way that satisfies billions of people. Though I am getting a kick out of imagining Mexican/American Jesus munching on burritos.

[ben_w]

> Matthew 4:1

I don't understand why that would have any effect?

"Then Jesus was led by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil."

[orbisvicis]

Sidestepping the issue of whether or not Jesus is actually omnipotent, the devil tempted Jesus and Jesus was like, "nah, not going to happen".

[ben_w]

There's two things there, and I don't get either of them.

First, if you want to sidestep if Jesus is omnipotent, then it's no longer saying anything about omnipotence.

Second, you also have to make the devil omnipotent.

Actually, the second point has a sub-point, because if it's two different entities then you get "an unstoppable force meets an immovable object" which is more easily resolved by "the force just passes right through the object without influencing it" — for the self-contradiction I gave to even be present, you would need to regard the devil as being another aspect of Yahweh in the same regard that Jesus is an incarnation of Yahweh within Christianity (not to be confused with how Jesus is seen in Islam, which totally rejects this as polytheistic idolatry).