this post was submitted on 14 Dec 2023
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TIL Satan is a genie.
Also, in these games, the folks going for "more wishes" are shooting low. The only wish you need, which also defeats the monkey's paw, is "grant me omnipotence."
But: this is Satan we're talking about. The Deciever, The Traitor. Not only is this a monkey-paw situation, but a Christian Satan is going to actively try to decieve you.
I don't think I'd even trust his answer about whether there's a cost, so I'd pass on the winning lotto numbers, too.
I'd say, "no thanks" and immediately convert to Catholicism, start going to church, and lead a clean life from here on out. If the orthodox Jews are right, I'm fucked anyway since my mother isn't a Jew, so Christianity is the best bet.
Omnipotence without knowing how to control it could very easily instantly annihilate you, whether physically or mentally through complete ego death.
Omnipotence means you can do literally anything, and anything includes having perfect control of your powers without knowing how to use them. It also includes the ability to continue to interact and exist as an omnipotent being even if you were completely, utterly, 100% destroyed.
If you were omnipotent, you could just decide that every action you take will benefit you in some way and then, it doesn't matter what you do, you're doing the right thing. You could even just choose not to lose yourself in your newfound power.
You don't have to know how to do something to do it when you're omnipotent. You don't even have to know the option to do it exists to choose that option. Because omnipotence means the ability to do literally anything, even when it makes no logical sense.
Of course, none of this makes logical sense. It doesn't have to, because omnipotence isn't a scientific concept or anything. It's a word we chose to define in a contradictory way. It's like if we made a new word that means "somebody who can do things they're completely incapable of doing." Not even really a paradox so much as a word whose definition makes no sense.
The weirdest part to me is that an omnipotent being must, by necessity, have the ability to create a being with powers exceeding omnipotence. Something more powerful than them. But they must also have the ability to overpower their creation, otherwise there'd be something they can't do, and they would therefore not be omnipotent. That's just a mindboggling thing to think about.