I thought this would be a fun spinoff the thread in Great Debates. Here’s. the scenario. You’ve been given the power to work miracles, but with the following limitations.
A. You can’t do anything to directly affect the minds of others. No snapping your fingers to miraculously make others believe in your special power.
B. You can’t directly kill people / wish people dead.
C. Miracles that will indirectly hurt others are also restricted. No making the sun go supervova. No wishing a gun into existence to go on a shooting spree. You get the idea.
D. The goal here is to get others to believe you can work miracles, not to enrich yourself. If you begin to abuse the power by miraculously altering the balance in your bank account to 10 billion dollars, your powers will disappear, and in a painful manner.
Other than that, have it. Anything else goes. What miracles would you work?
Do I have to be physically present at the place where the event will happen? (For example, if I want to cure a common disease, can I wave my hand and cure it globally, or do I have to go everywhere?)
If the latter, do I have the miraculous power to be in more than one place at a time?
And then I’d bring them back. Even the one I knocked out. See I could kill people and then bring them back. That may even be fun and would get attention. Murder conviction thrown out when victim testifies that the person who killed him brings him back to life.
I hope you don’t consider this threadshitting…
But why would this be my goal? Isn’t me knowing enough? Why wouldn’t I just perform the miracles anonymously?
I think I’ll just do a very simple ‘impossible’ thing, but do it over and over at the place and location viewers/investigators want.
Set up: get a handful of little iron things, like washers or nails or tacks and the like. Ask the investigators to bring along a magnet or two. Then I show them the magnet picks up the iron gizmos as expected. Then I say “abracadabra” and show the magnet no longer attracts the iron stuff at all.
And that’s it. I turn the magnetism of the magnet on and off, over and over, as many times and with as many magnets as investigators want to bring me.
I think demonstrating the power to cancel/reinstate one of the basic forces of the universe should damn well establish I have supernatural abilities, right?
OTOH, why do I want to prove that I have supernatural abilities? All I can see it doing is making me ‘of interest’ to all sorts of people, official and criminal, and where’s the good in that?
Provide enough of a supply of all useful trace elements in convenient ingot form to make all of them cheaply, easily, and casually usable for anyone. Like, there are now a billion tons each of gold, silver, platinum, etc., ingots spread around the world. (Of course this could indirectly harm others by making lots of rich people into poor people. And gotta be careful with the reactive metals.)
Post an announcement on social media, “On MM/DD/YYYY, at hh:mm GMT, every nuclear, biological, and chemical weapon in the world will become inoperable.”
A few days later, post an announcement on social media, “On MM/DD/YYYY, at hh:mm GMT, all of the plastic garbage in the oceans will disappear.”
A few days later, post an announcement on social media, “On MM/DD/YYYY, at hh:mm GMT, the excess carbon in the atmosphere will be transformed into gem-quality brilliant-cut diamonds the size of basketballs.”
A few days later, post an announcement on social media, “On my birthday, at noon local time, every woman on the planet will have an orgasm.”
There is a Democrat in the White House. I am doing things that will accomplish his stated goals, without any of the politically unpopular things he would be required to do otherwise. I think he will protect the golden goose.
I don’t want to fight the hypothetical, but I’m sure as hell gonna use my miracle powers to make myself and my loved ones invulnerable before I go out and challenge many of the world’s major religions.
Then I’m going to keep it simple. I won’t affect people’s minds. Rather, I’ll affect light, such that anyone looking at the night sky will see, written in new constellations and in a language they can read (including emojis for those who can’t read), the simple message: “LEFT HAND OF DORKNESS CAN WORK MIRACLES. COOL, HUH?”
The message will appear for thirty seconds for each person the first time they look up at the night sky, each night for a year.
Lots of faith healers and miracles workers cast out demons, make the blind see, deaf hear, the lame walk… nobody has ever induced limb regeneration before.
Gotta go with @mikecurtis here. Why it the hell would I want people to know I can work miracles? That’s just asking for, nay demanding assassination, but not before being inundated by every huckster, con man and parasite on the planet. Plus all the people that really need a miracle. Better to work behind the scenes.
I like it. (I might leave a few tac-nukes in the hands of some Democracies)
Although I would go for golf ball sized diamonds, maybe even pea sized. Millions of basketball carbons crystals crashing down would cause serious damage.
This would also put DeBeers out of business, a nice side effect.
And I would post anonymously.
The other way to do it is deny the miracles. Then the media will try to prove they happen.
Two Scotus members will retire, with full benefits and honors (why not?).
Homeless camps, made out of surplus shipping containers will appear, with central bath and cook houses.
Yeah, that’s one you just do, and don’t announce at all.
I’m with @silenus and @mikecurtis; you just do your miracles and keep it on the down low. Nobody has to know that you caused it to rain in California, or that every carbon-capturing natural process is miraculously improved enough to gradually offset current and future carbon emissions, and even remove it from the atmosphere until it’s at the natural normal. Or that GOP legislators in Texas are struck with violent and intractable diarrhea when they campaign in person.
