Bet on seven paradoxes you can't solve

The definition of paradox is very broad, but we can say that it is a fact that defies intuition. Some paradoxes have solutions, some don't. Here are seven paradoxes that bet you can't solve.

Freedom of consciousness

If God is omnipotent and knew what we would do before he created us, then how can we have free consciousness?

Answer: This paradox can be explained by the fact that God exists beyond time - He can know the future just as he knows the past and the present. Just as the past does not interfere with our freedom of will, neither does the future.

Crocodile dilemma

A crocodile stole a father's son and promised to return him if the father could guess what he was going to do. So what if the father guesses that "the crocodile won't give him his son back"?

Answer: This is an unanswerable question. If the crocodile does not return the son, then the father is right and the crocodile has broken his promise. If the crocodile gives him his son back, the father is wrong and the crocodile has broken his promise.

Grandfather paradox

A man travels back in time and kills his grandfather before his grandmother can meet him. This means that one of the person's parents will not be born; In turn, the person himself will not be born; Which means he doesn't have a chance to time travel and swing a knife; That means his grandfather is still alive; Which means that this person could conceive of going back in time and killing his grandfather.

Answer: The moment a time traveler changes something in the past, then parallel universes are cut open, which can be explained by quantum mechanics.

Sandpile paradox

There is a pile of 1,000,000 grains of sand. If we take away one grain of sand, there is still a pile; If we take away one more grain of sand, it's still a pile. If we take away one grain of sand at a time, then when we have only one grain of sand left, is it still a pile?

Answer: Set a fixed boundary. If we say that 10,000 grains of sand is a pile of sand, then anything less than 10,000 grains of sand cannot be called a pile of sand. So the distinction between 9,999 sand and 10,001 sand is a little unreasonable. Then there is a solution - set a variable boundary, but what that boundary is, you don't need to know.

Omnipotence paradox

Can God make something so heavy that he can't lift it himself? If he can, then he cannot lift it, which proves that he is not omnipotent in terms of strength. If he could not, then he could not create such a thing, which proves that he is not omnipotent in creation.

Answer: The most common answer is that God is all-powerful, so "can't lift" is a meaningless condition. Other responses point out that the question itself is contradictory, like "the circle of a square."

The Epimenides Paradox

Epimenides wrote in a poem: "The people of the Isle of Kerry, every man is a liar, evil beast, lazy net!" Epimenides, however, was himself a Creesian. If Epimenides was a Cree and a liar, then the statement in his poem, "Cree, everyone lies," is a lie. This means that all Cree Islanders are honest people, so Epimenides is telling the truth. So the paradox goes back to the beginning.

Answer: If Epimenides knew that at least one Cree (besides him) does not lie, then his poem is a lie (because he insists that all Crees lie), even if the fact that the author of the poem is a liar is true.

The paradox of unstoppable power

When an unstoppable force hits an immovable object? If this force moves the object, then the object is not immovable. If the force does not move the object, then the unstoppable force is blocked.

Answer: This would never happen, because if there were an unstoppable force, there would be no immovable object, and vice versa. More interestingly, there will be no immovable objects. An immovable object must have infinite inertia, and infinite inertia requires infinite mass. And infinite mass doesn't exist in our finite world.

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