Shia Islamic Argument for the existence of God

[TheMuslim]

[quote=In response to the first inquisitor, the Imam, peace be with him, says “Open your eyes, do not you see the expansive heavens and the earth? How God has placed something which is bigger than the earth in your eyes which are smaller than an egg.” This answer was sufficient to satisfy the inquisitor.

The imam equivocated and the questioner was satisfied?  

In his answer to the second individual, while stressing that by His infinite power, God can do everything, the Imam says “What you have asked is impossible and nothing (lā shai’).” That is, although God is powerful to do everything, however, you have not asked about a “thing”; therefore, what you have inquired about is not an exception to the Divine omnipotence; rather, it is excluded from the domain of power. This response of the holy Imam, peace be with him, comprises a profound philosophical analysis about impossible phenomena that an impossible thing has a notion the extension (misdāq) of which is “nothing"."

-and after equivocating, pretended that his god was somehow limited by logical impositions which he -cannot- remain faithful to?

Sounds to me like the Imam was having some fun at the expense of two dim questioners.

If that's all it took to satisfy the inquisitor, then that inquisitor has very, very, very low standards.
Seeing the entire expanse of the heavens and the earth is not even remotely the same as actually having the entire expanse of the heavens and earth inside our eyes.
So that was a great non-answer on the Imam's part.

The context of the passage was about the different ways the Imams responded to different questioners according to the ability of the questioners' intellects. Sometimes they gave rhetorical responses, sometimes logical and/or philosophical ones - they type they gave depended on the inquisitor. This is the 7th century we're talking about here, and the Imams were meant to be guides for everyone - and that requires adjusting to the person you're speaking to. The Prophet and the Imams were heedful of their audience's capacity of comprehension, as the hadith says: "We the congregation of apostles converse to people according to the capacity of their intellects" (this hadith is, in fact, mentioned on the same page as those responses). They were leaders of a religion and knew how to deal with people in order to preach it.