A quote from C.S. Lewis in The Problem of Pain:
“meaningless combinations of words do not suddenly acquire meaning simply because we prefix to them the two other words, ‘God can.’ It remains true that all things are possible with God: the intrinsic impossibilities are not things but nonentities. It is no more possible for God than for the weakest of His creatures to carry out both of two mutually exclusive alternatives; not because His power meets an obstacle, but because nonsense remains nonsense even when we talk it about God.”
Hat tip goes to Doug Wilson.
One major argument against a supra-rational (meaning beyond rationality), as opposed to a perfectly rational God, is that a supra-rational God constitutes an incomprehensible God – an unknowable God. This view isn’t false because of this, but it conflicts with all the major theistic religions all of which claim that we not only can, but have a moral responsibility to know God. Judaism, Christianity, and Islam all affirm this.
I am always more impressed by C.S. Lewis as a writer than as a thinker. In the quote he elegantly communicates a difficult philosophical idea that the theologians who precede Lewis struggle to articulate. On the other hand, the idea so original it was named after him, the Lewis Trilemma (liar, lunatic, or lord), is embarrassingly weak.
