January 11, 2002: Open Lines - If You Were God
The Art Bell Archive · Arthur William Bell III
February 12, 20252h 47m
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Show Notes
Art Bell opens the Friday night lines with a provocative question for callers: if you were God, what would you do differently? The prompt follows the previous week's popular question about what listeners would do as the devil, and Art insists callers must answer within the spirit of the question rather than deflecting with claims of divine perfection.
Callers offer a wide range of responses, from instituting a universal language and eliminating the seven deadly sins to granting all humans telepathy or logical thinking. One caller suggests making all creatures vegetarian, while another proposes that God should simply show up every five years and perform an undeniable miracle. Art challenges each answer, pointing out unintended consequences and paradoxes, noting that removing free will or suffering could strip existence of meaning.
Between calls, Art reads humorous true crime stories about spectacularly dim criminals, shares news about Taliban prisoners heading to Guantanamo Bay, discusses the Enron scandal's Watergate-like momentum, and speculates about the implications of quantum computing for time travel. The evening reveals as much about human nature as it does about theology.
Callers offer a wide range of responses, from instituting a universal language and eliminating the seven deadly sins to granting all humans telepathy or logical thinking. One caller suggests making all creatures vegetarian, while another proposes that God should simply show up every five years and perform an undeniable miracle. Art challenges each answer, pointing out unintended consequences and paradoxes, noting that removing free will or suffering could strip existence of meaning.
Between calls, Art reads humorous true crime stories about spectacularly dim criminals, shares news about Taliban prisoners heading to Guantanamo Bay, discusses the Enron scandal's Watergate-like momentum, and speculates about the implications of quantum computing for time travel. The evening reveals as much about human nature as it does about theology.