The question only fits certain gods. There are thousands or more to choose from.

For everyone: what was here before the big bang or god or whatever (turtle hauling the world)? I don't know, and, quite honestly, I don't have the skill set to find out. If a physicist has an explanation I've not heard, tack it on. Oh, I don't believe it to have been a god. Infinity is a tremendous concept mathematically.

This is from a site called Crossexamined.org, and even though it's a Christian apologist site, this is the best way of answering that I have come across. (Please note that this debate has been around since the Middle Ages...)

(Any misspellings in the original, for which I make no apologies. I didn't do it.)

"This question reminds me of when the religious leaders tried to trap Jesus in a no-win situation by asking “Should we pay taxes to the Romans?” If Jesus said yes, then that would mean that He was siding with Rome, the people hated Rome and wanted their Messiah when he came to overthrow the Romans and destroy them. Answering yes would turn the Jewish people against Him. They might even stone him or something! On the other hand, if Jesus said no then he’d get in trouble with the Romans. It’d be treason. No matter which answer Jesus gave, it seemed, He would get Himself in trouble. We all know what happened next and how Jesus brilliantly wiggled out their trap. (Mark 12:13-17, Luke 20:21-25)

The Christian Apologist seems to be in the same position. “Can God Create A Rock So big he cannot lift it?” If we say yes, then we concede that there is something God can’t do because God would then create a rock which He couldn’t lift. The thing God couldn’t do would be to lift the rock. On the other hand, if we say no, then we also concede that there’s something God cannot do. Namely, create a rock which He can’t lift. Either way, our answer will affirm that God is not omnipotent, or so it seems.

I think this attempt to stump the theist and get him to admit that God is finite is a pretty bad one. For it misunderstands the definition of omnipotence. When we Christians say “God can do anything” we don’t mean literally everything. When we say that God can do the impossible, we don’t mean he can do the logically impossible. By impossible, we mean things like creating things out of nothing, keeping people in a fire from burning, having a guy walk on water, or make a 90 year old woman get pregnant and give birth to a healthy son, and things like that. We don’t mean God can do absolutely everything. We mean only what is logically possible (that is to say, things that are not contradictory concepts).

There are some things God cannot do simply because He is omnipotent. If God is infinitely powerful than it’s impossible to create a rock so large He cannot lift it. For if there was anything He couldn’t lift, that would prove Him a being of finite strength. But a being of infinite power could create a rock of infinite size and infinite weight and still be able to move it. It is because God is infinitely powerful (i.e omnipotent) that He cannot create a rock too hard for Him to move.

This little riddle is akin to asking “Can God’s infinite power overwhelm His infinite power?” Or it’s like asking “Can God beat Himself in a fist fight” or “Can God think up a mathematical equation too difficult for Him to solve”. It’s sheer nonsense. C.S Lewis once said “Nonsense is still nonsense even when we speak it about God.” You’re basically asking if a Being of unlimited power can produce something to limit Him. But His unlimited power, by definition, rules out that possibility. An unlimited being cannot create limits for Himself.

The definition of omnipotence does not mean being able to do the logically impossible (to do something logically contradictory). God cannot create square circles, married bachelors, one ended sticks etc. God can do anything that’s logically possible, that is; not logically contradictory. God can create out of nothing, God can make ax heads float in water, He can make animals speak in a human tongue, He can cause a virgin to be pregnant, but He can’t make something exist and not exist at the same time, He can’t cause an animal to speak in a human tongue and be silent at the same time, and He can’t make a woman both pregnant and not pregnant at the same time. Nowhere in The Bible does it say that God can do the logically impossible. That is not the definition of Omnipotence."

It then goes off into discussing whether God can do evil, and answering "No" because of God's inherent goodness, which, if you read the OT, I think is up for grabs... but that's another story. This is about logic, not value judgments.

Atlas lifts the entire world on his back as the silly story goes.

One heckuva rock.

Ummmm, are you making an attempt at being funny? Because, really, not.

I think you would be better posing this question on a different website....Agnostics.com is one in which the majority....if not all of us, don’t believe there is a god, therefore not really anyone here to address this question to.

I think the idea of brahman is easier to comprehend. It ties everything back more to science and math than mysticism. The fabric of space is consciousness and it is within us all and all things. Literally. "God" is just a personification of the universe in total. The Lord or Isa (Isha) of the vedas is that space and consciousness with all the rules that makes matter act and interact. We are Isa. We are brahman. We don't create in some mystical manner. We are the consciousness that spurs probabilities to alter. The rules create the rocks.

Interesting question; on the lines of - Strong as the Hulk is, he cannot lift Thor's hammer but what if he lifted Thor whilst Thor was holding the hammer?
In some respects, god did set his own limits in the form of free will. Adam made his own choice and other than showing him the way or smiting him. God could not prevent it.

1. Not all religious are Christians
2. This paradox has already been addressed by many Christian thinkers and philosophers and it is really a bad argument against YHWH (common, we have better ones).

It all collapses in the problem a limitation, can an omnipotent entity limits itself? Does it make this entity less omnipotent?
The answer to this is simple, yes, YHWH can limit himself as part of his powers, and the same goes with free-will, he limit himself in control of humans thus giving free will.
And this limitation can be removed anytime he can, so yes he can make a stone that he can't lift because he wants to, and at any time he can remove this limitation.

Of course the explanation is a lot more complex and closes the many holes that my brief description gives...

It is naive to think that a religion that has more than 3000 years (Christianity is just a Jewish heresy) has flaws so easy to explore.

AND this does not mean I believe in this bullshit, just means that the bullshit is a lot more complex and elaborated than you think, and if you discuss with someone that really have knowledge about it you would be steam rolled.

Not all religions are theistic.

I have heard some Christian scholars (e.g. Alvin Plantinga) acknowledge that God has logical limitations and would therefore not be omnipotent in that sense.

"Lift".