Sixteen Tons 2

 Illustration Of Isnad

So why was I interested in such a question as whether God can create a rock so massive that even God cannot lift it?

I wondered that myself.
It is a silly question that bedevils our riddle minds. It is a riddle, an old and ancient riddle, more than a serious philosophical question. I think it has more in common with a knock-knock joke than philosophy.

Everything in the riddle is dependent upon our concept of God. Further, it is dependent upon our mish-mosh of ideas jumbled together that we call The Holy.

Consider the riddle in this form:

1) Montag claims to have infinite powers, and he can do all things.
2) Given that, can Montag create a rock so massive that even Montag cannot lift it?

Notice that the riddling part is no longer part 2), the lifting of the massive rock, yea or nay. The part which confronts us with great feelings of oddness is part 1).
We would probably say Montag has gone over the edge, and is quite mad, and should be assisted straight away to the nearest dafter.

But in the original question, God is the subject of an incredibly large belief system on our parts, and there is little or nothing "systematic" about it.
It would be more correct to call it a Belief Landfill, or a Belief Hodge-Podge.
I read various commentors on this question on a forum recently, and the members of the Abrahamic religions are infamous for their capacity to write, comment, argue, and generally go to ungodly lengths in their erudition.

Jews write a Talmud, Christians write a Summa, and Islamic commentors write opinions which are isnad-ded to the opinions of ancient scholars.

I think the riddle is a good illustration of the wretched nature of "belief systems".

A Belief System should be systematic, as is Science.

I think it is fine to have a  belief system about morals and ethics, but when it comes to God, belief systems lead incessantly to paradoxes such as that above.

If God, then grasp virtue, and never look back... and certainly do not stop to chatter on about your belief system.

A belief system is nothing more than Tony Robbin's bed of hot coals.
When you look back later, you see there was not much to it.

--
note
isnad - a chain of transmission of hadith