Let's pretend that, for one week, you are the recipient of a "BRUCE ALMIGHTY" gift from God. So what do you do?

So… if it were up to you, the economy would collapse completely, sending the world into a massive depression?

I like that Hobbes’ avatar also looks deeply concerned.

Keep the money the same, but satisfy everyone’s basic (and not so basic) needs:
– physical and mental health (but age appropriate)
– food
– shelter
– education

And just to fuck with people, make everyone speak the truth.
The politicians and world leaders can try to sort themselves out after that.

If you recall the movie, Nimis, you cannot alter or mess with FREE WILL, so you would not be able to make everyone always speak the truth.

@Hobbes: I asked what YOU would do. I didn’t invite flaming.

JackA: Damn it. What about a I Am Lying, Kick Me sign on all of them instead?

I, personally, would want to be a loving and caring Gawd, and not the kind who would resort to pranks, like Loki, the Norse night god of mischief.

JackA: If it were actually spelled Gawd, I might actually go to church more.

I can’t spell the name of the Almighty in the traditional manner I (and screwed up horribly, when I composed the question), because it is offensive to Jews to spell the Creator’s name with three letters.

You can either spell it as G-D or as I spell it, but if you spell it the way it is in the Bible, you piss them off, and I don’t wish to offend anyone.

JackA: I have friends who call themselves Jews, but none of them have ever told me that.
Jew points will be docked.

It isn’t universally practiced, but I never know, when I post in here, who might read my words, and I really don’t wish to anger anyone, based on religious words that might be incorrectly used by me.

I am not a Christian, but I do respect all religions, and those who practice them.

http://simple.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Names_of_God_in_Judaism

“In Judaism, God (written “G-d” for religious reasons by many people) is known by many names. The most important of these names is the Tetragrammaton, or “Four-lettered word”: YHVH, YHWH, or י – ה וה. Jews are not allowed to say this name, and instead say Adonai. Even Adonai is only used by some Jews in prayer. Most Jews would refer to God as Hashem, or “The Name”. Jews are not allowed to erase the Tetragrammaton, so they rarely write it down outside of their most holy books, such as the Torah.
Other names include Elohim, El, Shaddai, Tzeva-ot, ‘Elyon, and Ehyeh-Asher-Ehyeh which are respectively pronounced by observant Jews as Elokim, Kayl, Shakkai, Tzeva-Kot.

Certain names, such as Shalom, are pronounced as written, but when written one letter, in this case the last letter, is omitted. The last of the above “other” list is often said as Ek-yeh Asher Ek-yeh.”

(Disclosure; I am a secular Jew.)

Thanks for your contribution to my education.

As information, I have Jewish relatives (via marriage) who are Ashkenazi, and can trace their roots to Russia.

Why did Hobbes get 4 lurve for not answering the question, but asking a question…is that how you get lurve?

Alright then, I’ll bite.

If we’re destroying the economy, we might as well do it whole cloth and transform everything into a post-scarcity society.

And if we’re giving old people a second chance, why not just give everyone the ability to control their apparent age, and grant immortality (though anyone who wanted to could die, I suppose).

Let’s also cure all diseases, genetic or infectious, fix all mental health problems, and raise the level of education and general intelligence.

We could also give people 100% effective and side-effect free birth control.

Also, I’d get rid of Bruce Almighty – that movie was awful.

@sarap: I suspect because he was using both irony and indirection to make a subtle point. At least four people agreed with him.

Well, I know 4 people agreed with him, I agree with him…just wandered how it was a great answer, when the question wasn’t even answered. Forget it, I think I know the answer.

Although the movie was made to evoke laughter from the audience, it did tend to get a tiny bit “preachy” at times.

For my money, I wish it had been done as a totally dramatic piece, showing the frustrations that someone would/could endure, if the burdens of the Creator were suddenly placed on him or her.

For instance, the protagonist decides to eliminate all physical diseases and “birth imperfections,” not realizing that doing so will put every doctor, nurse and orderly on the planet, in the unemployment lines.

You want to flood a desert to bring life-giving water to it? You’ll probably empty an ocean doing so, while at the same time, destroying all desert-based life, that could not handle being at the bottom of an ocean.

Suppose you could add $1,000,000 to everyone’s bank account? That same day, every loan officer would also be out of work.

And what about the FREE WILL things that you cannot change?

There’s still gonna be The Seven Deadly Sins, and violations of every decent act imaginable, so, in the end, the “human condition” will remain unchanged; man will still hate his brother, and conspire against him, for as it is written in the Sacred Scrolls: 29th Scroll, 6th Verse:

“Beware the beast Man for he is the Devil’s pawn. Alone among God’s primates, he kills for sport, or lust, or greed. Yea, he will kill his brother to possess his brother’s land. Let him not breed in great numbers for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair. For he is the harbinger of Death.”

@JackAdams – I think the quandaries you present, while interesting, all operate on the assumption that the world is currently in a perfect, fragile balance, and that any effort to improve matters is futile because it will disrupt that balance. Also – what is that you’re quoting?

You don’t know? You mean you have never heard of the Sacred Scrolls?

They were first revealed to the world in 1968, here

Well, first, I would have to believe in God, but ignoring that part… I would get rid of our current President and ensure Obama wins the election. I would get rid of all diseases, but I would not get rid of mortality. People die for a reason. I wouldn’t let anyone under 60 die though, nothing is sadder than when a person in their prime 20s dies. So people would die, but only of old age. Being healthy is important. Being happy and the rest will be left up to everyone’s hard work and dedication towards those two things.

You know that the average life expectancy for the first humans was under 35, right? That is, if they weren’t one of the staggering number of infant mortalities. What reason dictates what age we should die at, or whether we should die at all? Try telling a Rwanda surviver that death is really just part of the “natural order of things”.

Indeed. You make a very cogent point.

I would like to conjure God Himself. and talk to Him (if he actually speaks) hehehe

@hobbes – yes, i am well aware of that. That’s why I said people should die of old age, and not any disease. Now old age could mean above 100, and perhaps above 150 a decade from now. But no I don’t believe that people should keep living forever and ever. For one thing..that would cause a population crisis…and would seriously limit resources.

Of course, people living to 150 would also cause a population/resource crisis. Really, my point is that what we think of as “old age” is just an arbitrary number. Also, if we’re still playing by the rules of the question, there would no longer be any scarcity of resources, so overpopulation wouldn’t be an issue.

You assume that the person with Gawd’s powers (but maybe not His wisdom and judgment) would tend to the “resources” issue.

@hobbes – i see where you are coming from. Personally, I can’t just pretend that resources is a non-issue since my science roots have gotten that term too deeply ingrained to avoid. I know it’s a hypothetical/fantasy Q, but I guess I was still trying to apply it to the real world and it’s current problems.

Mmm. OK. I see what you mean. So, back to the original debate: death has been used as a population balancer since time immemorial. However, we have already extended our life-spans far beyond what they originally were through technology, and have accepted whatever negative consequences have come of that. So where is the cut-off? At what point do you forbid people from living longer? And why not go all the way to immortality? We die because we have evolved to die, but evolution is not moral, and has no concern for us whatsoever.

If I had the power of God I’d use it to open my CDs.

Why not get the CDs to open, totally by themselves?

I’d instantly have everyone accept Jesus by their own will and then Jesus could return and we’d have a NEW heaven and a NEW earth.

It’s time to start over.

Etern: Eh?

@EternalOptions – leaving aside the religious debate and the rather odd sentiment… isn’t that a contradiction? How can you force everyone to accept Jesus of their own free will?

@Etern: Since when does free will equal coercion?

I have a great comment to share here, but I’ll keep it to myself…

@JackAdams – I think one of the rules of conversation is that you can’t bring something up and then decide not to talk about it. I’m sure that’s in the rule-book somewhere…

You just brought up that a rule book exists, but you are not showing it to me.

Very interesting…

Er… joke? I thought that was obvious.

It was. It’s hard to take serious anyone whose avatar is a stuffed tiger. LOL

This is true =] But seriously, what was your comment?

As I said, quoting verbatim, “I’ll keep it to myself…”

Though my original post was a joke, it’s still rude to say that you have something to say and then not say it.

What is ”rude,” IMHO, is to continue ask (or “badger”) someone to publicly reveal something, after you have already been told “No.”

I’m sorry to badger you. I meant no offense. However, in future, don’t dangle something in front of the discussion (which is now just you and me =]) – simply refrain from posting at all. It’s very easy to do on an internet forum.

Hobbes: And he shall dangle whatever he pleases!

Look, Jack. I can’t stop you from posting whatever you want. I’m simply informing you that it’s rude, and requesting that you refrain from doing so.

Back to the question at hand…..
This one is easy:
– Remove religion in every way shape and form from the planet. (This would instantly solve a great many problems with the world)

- Endow everyone in the world with critical thought. (And this will solve the rest)

What I’d do, is go see the film at least once, to get tips on what not to do. ;-)

With the powers of Gawd, you would already KNOW everything about the movie, and would therefore not need to see it.

Noon, I must admit that your answer is among the very best I have ever read, relative to this question. GA!