this post was submitted on 02 May 2025
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xkcd

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Title text:

Unstoppable force-carrying particles can't interact with immovable matter by definition.

Transcript:

[An arrow pointing to the right and a trapezoid are labeled as 'Unstoppable Force' and 'Immovable Object' respectively.]
[The arrow is shown as entering the trapezoid from the left and the part of it in said trapezoid is coloured gray.]
[The arrow is shown as leaving the trapezoid to the right and is coloured black.]
[Caption below the panel:] I don't see why people find this scenario to be tricky.

Source: https://xkcd.com/3084/

explainxkcd for #3084

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[–] [email protected] 1 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

OK, but being very massive is not the same as what was being discussed.

Are you sure? I mean the word "heavy" was what I was going on, but there is a distinction I suppose.

You can also "lift" a finitely massive black hole with anything else massive.

Yeah, that's true... But again, I do have to stress that there is no alternative to "finitely massive" you really can't have an object of infinite mass in our universe.

Edit: So I guess it comes down to this: If "lift" and "move" are synonymous, then anyone can move any object of finite mass. An object of infinite mass can't exist in this universe. So you could say that the answer to the question is definitively no, God can't create a rock so big that he couldn't lift it, at least not given the laws of physics in this universe as he created it. (For this conjecture we're assuming God exists and created the universe).

If God created this universe he could in theory also create other universes with different laws of physics. So in that case, sure, why not, who knows.