13 responses so far ↓

• 1 Bored in Vernal // Apr 4, 2007 at 10:17 pm

  This is a hard one. I’m going off to Kolob to think for a while.

• 2 John // Apr 5, 2007 at 8:01 am

  It would seem unethical to me, if I had all power and all knowledge, to allow suffering to continue. I could do away with every impulse to harm or kill, get rid of cancer and AIDS and lower back pain, stop wars, etc. But I wonder, what would be the long-term impact of such total beneficence? Would humanity grow complacent? It seems like I would have to allow for some suffering and striving, some dissatisfaction. Like Captain Kirk said in Star Trek V: “I need my pain!”

  We need some pain in the world. But do we need so much?

  If I truly had so much power and knowledge, I would be tempted to divide that power to everyone on earth, equally.

  Just some thoughts.

• 3 Miko // Apr 5, 2007 at 10:38 am

  My initial instinct was “delete all religions” but then I realized I’d have to “make everyone grey”, too…then get rid of gender and then I realized I was going down the wrong road. I guess what I’d do is a few small miracles. Make a Green president, maybe rewind the global warming clock a few years to give My people a fighting chance…

  I dunno. When you think about what it would actually do to make these kinds of changes, you realize that even if there is a god, he’s prolly doing his best by not doing anything at all. Although, I really liked Bruce Almighty

• 4 Tammy Takahashi // Apr 5, 2007 at 12:05 pm

  Been thinking about this. Assuming that “God” is a being that has control over what humans do, how we perceive things and what happens to us, this is what I’d do:

  Nothing. There is nothing that I could do that would, without a shadow of a doubt, make the human race “better”. According to the Bible, Jesus came to us before. Did it make things “better” in the long run? If God saves some people, smites others, then fixes things, will it really make a difference? I would be in 24/7 micromanagement hell, and it still wouldn’t guarantee to fix things. Plus, who’s to say that my idea of what is “fixed” would be good for us as a race? Maybe, God knows that in order for any species to get through to the next plane of existence, certain things have to happen - like hitting bottom before being able to make a huge leap in self-discovery. So, no, I wouldn’t do anything.

  Now, if I were a God that actually wasn’t a God, but just another being in the universe that wanted to help humans along because I was far more advanced, and I’m feeling a little sorry for the whole human race, this is what I’d do:

  Put a satellite or two around the planet. Satellites that are clearly alien, but are seemingly benign.

  The reason is this: If we discovered once and for all that we aren’t the only beings in the universe, it would change religion significantly, and make us less earth-centric. Secondly, if there was an “other” out there that was just as smart (well, smarter) than us, then we’d have to come together to figure out what to do. We would no longer have the luxury of fighting amongst ourselves. Part of what makes the human race so concerned about each other and religion and all that *today*, is that the only real threat to our own existence is ourselves.

  If we were faced with the distinct possibility that there might be another threat, or at least, that our existence relied heavily on our dealing with an entirely different species who worked on a completely different level than us, we would be forced to change - one way or another.

  Although, that tactic, I just realized, might create an upsurge in Scientology.
  Basically, humans create their own reality. A God who has any understanding of human nature would see that whatever he brings to our world, we’ll turn it into what we want it to be. If Jesus returned and made himself as plain as day, he’d probably be arrested or killed, not followed. And if he was followed, we’d twist his words once again and do what we would anyway. We don’t want to change, except when we are ready for it.

  So, if I were God for a day, I wouldn’t change the world. I’d use the power to take a little tour of the universe and see what other critters are up to out there. Oh, and I’d take a peek into the quantum world and get those pesky answers concerning the time-space continuum.

  What a great question!

• 5 mel // Apr 5, 2007 at 1:08 pm

  I’d use my time travel skills to go back and erase all evidence of my existence and then drive a certain species of ape (one for which I have an inexplicably high level of contempt) insane by giving them a brain that sees me everywhere it looks…but particularly when it looks at itself. Ha. Ha, ha. IOW, like Tammy — I’d do nothing. Isn’t that one of tho perks of godhood?

  But seriously, I’d just make the daily use of marijuana my commandment number zero.

  Sorry. The existentialism behind this thought experiment is just too much for me.

• 6 Elaine Frei // Apr 5, 2007 at 4:13 pm

  I’ve been thinking about this since I first saw this post, and I’ve decided that the Law of Unintended Consequences are too complicated and sticky, even for a deity, to want to even attempt the job.

  Although I think that melting down all the weapons, all the way from Saturday night specials to nukes to biological and chemical weapons, along with the knowledge of how to make them, might be a good start. Still…unintended consequences make me hesitant to contemplate this too deeply.

  I would recommend a book however, an older novel by Father Andrew Greeley called “God Game”. The story concerns a Catholic priest who is a computer gamer; he finds himself effectively the god of the characters in the game he is playing one night when a lighting strike does something very odd to his computer. It looks at some interesting repercussions of being God.

• 7 Bonny // Apr 5, 2007 at 9:47 pm

  All I can keep thinking about is that if I were God (the God that my some of my fellow Christian community seems to believe in sometimes), I would strongly use my spirit to urge people to think about their actions towards others as a reflection of their relationship with myself. I would urge them to think less about ’saving others’ or getting the rules right or caring about whether or not everyone winds up in heaven or hell, but would try to use my spirit to convey a message of being kind, mindful people, and socially responsible people who are focused on their actions now, rather than having a ton of worries or burdens regarding rules and the afterlife.

  I know that if I were God there would be a lot of actions I would want to take and things I would want to stop, but I think if I were going to be a God that had any influence over people at all, I would use my influence to try to revamp people’s interpretation of what having a relationship with my self should look like.

  Not sure if that makes sense, and it’s probably a little bit funny sounding, but I would be God with a big anti-legalism/ pro-mindfulness sign on display.

• 8 John // Apr 6, 2007 at 9:32 am

  I love everyone’s reflections on this topic. I see a tension here. For the most part we extend aid when we see someone suffering and we’re in a position to do so. We generally don’t think about harming that person’s future or whether or not we’re imposing our ethics/morality on that person.

  What is that changes the situation when we’re empowered to help every person in every way?

  It may be possible to bring the question down to earth. Would you give antibiotics and vaccines to the Third World if you knew that it would result in a population explosion and make more people suffer from hunger? (I would, then I would hope to have the resources to solve the problem created by the solution.) Just some thoughts.

• 9 mel // Apr 6, 2007 at 3:00 pm

  Yes, I’m definitely in favor of acting out of the best informed altruism at our disposal…knowing that (in the language of a software developer) with each bug fix we are bound to introduce and/or expose more bugs, which we then will triage and work on accordingly.

  Above all, I think this is where the assumption that a superior being will not save us is important to both our willingness to experiment with fixes and our confidence that human wisdom is is sufficient to the experiment.

• 10 Tammy Takahashi // Apr 6, 2007 at 7:35 pm

  John,

  This is like the Superman problem.

  If Superman is capable of helping everyone, with everything, how does he choose? And how does he sleep?

  With the question you give about vaccinations - if I were able to miraculously give vaccinations to all, and it caused world hunger, wouldn’t I then be able to solve world hunger? But then, if I solve world hunger, perhaps that would increase the problem of war because there would be too many people fighting for space/resources/power, or perhaps it would cause a problem with global warming, or peak oil. So then, shouldn’t I be able to solve that problem? And then, if I make infinite oil, or fix the weather, or put everyone in a time out, what other problems would be waiting for me to fix then? When do I stop fixing them and let the human race do its thing?

  Maybe, what we consider to be “helping” everyone, is just from our own human perceptions of what good is? If you asked this same question to every society on the planet, the answers would be very different. If you asked this question 100 years ago, what answers would we get? 100 years from now?

  I think it’s like a Buddhist koan, because there is no answer. Every answer we can come up with is from our own limited cultural, experiential perspective.

  Who knows, maybe the best thing a God could do to help the world would be to create another plague, or find a way to significantly reduce the population of the world. Or, maybe it would be to help humans find a way to colonize other planets? Or to give an edge to another species that could co-exist with humans, or make us band together?

  But I think that as humans, we have to earn our improvements. If God, or some higher level of being, gave them to us, without our earning it, we would take it for granted, and then ask for more. We would not appreciate it. So, the good has to come from within us. If God does exist, and the bible is true, then God did a bunch of experimenting with humans to see how we responded, figured out that his help didn’t make humans any less, well, human, and has left us alone since then.

  But my guess, if the Christian/western God does exist, he’s sipping mai tai at the beach.

  ROYAL RAINBOW! (10 points if you get that reference)

• 11 pilgrimgirl // Apr 7, 2007 at 9:22 pm

  If I were God, one thing I would do for sure is spend personal time with each of my children. I would invite you all up to Kolob for afternoon tea & scones (not to worry, God tea is fair-trade and organic) and show you around my place. I would hope that you would reciprocate the invitation and show me around your home, too.

  I would also end rape and ensure that all children are born to parents who are thrilled about their imminent arrival. I like the idea of eliminating weapons, too. Oh, one more thing: I’d give humans the ability to regrow their limbs like starfish.
  FWIW: I loved “Bruce Almighty.” Morgan Freeman is a god I could worship. But I find George Burns a bit less worthy of emulation, even if he is rather charming and grandfatherly.

• 12 Miko // Apr 10, 2007 at 6:05 pm

  Tammy: Katamari Damacy
  I also liked your snowball of solving problems. I think (as a human, not as a God), there will always be “problems” but I also think (as Gaia, not as a human) that it’s a way of balancing out the equation. Most closed systems naturally find a way of balancing things: if there’s too much of one kind of animal, its predators will increase to manage that herd, once that herd is managed, it’s predators will decrease because there’s not enough food. And so on. I honestly think AIDS and cancer are the small pox and rubella of today. Yes, we should work toward curing them, but I think it’s indicative of a closed system that’s trying to manage the size of a particular herd…

• 13 Spring Cleaning | Mind on Fire // Mar 25, 2008 at 5:31 pm

  […] answers to these questions, they’re just here for helpfulness. Also, it seemed apropos to John’s recent post. Think of it as a maid to help with your inner spring cleaning. Happy […]

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