I've always been fascinated by the idea that there's this arcane knowledge, hidden from ordinary people, mastery of which allows the universe to be one's plaything.

Math, programming, science, economics: These things seem to be as close to the real deal as one can get. Which makes them quite satisfying on the one hand, but also a little disappointing. Those things are...too limited, not magical enough, not...powerful enough to deal with many Real Problems. There's still sickness, death, weakness, evil, conflict...

On the one hand, our resources and technology are incredible by the standards of any prior period in history. On the other hand, we seem to be beset by problems on all sides. I badly want magic to be real, and humanity to have an omniscient, omnipotent, omnibenevolent father figure to help solve its problems and guide its development.

Christianity has some fascinating hints of supernatural powers. It's a real shame religion is so obsessively focused on the moral lessons. As a child learning about the Bible for the first time, I had so many more practical inquiries that I've never gotten adequately answered:

- Jesus went around healing people with a touch. What exactly were the mechanics of this? Is it only usable on leprosy specifically, or did it work for other diseases? Did other people have this ability? Has anyone come up with a plausible explanation of how the healing powers worked on a molecular level? Could this be a clue to useful cures for diseases today?

- Death and resurrection. How was the resurrection practically achieved? Can anyone be brought back to life, or do you have to have the kind of relationship with God that Jesus did? If we figure out the process Jesus used to come back to life, could we create technology to repeat this process and bring other dead people back to life? Is the power far beyond our current technology? Or is there some fundamental limitation making it a power that only God can use?

- The relationship between God and Jesus is super confusing to me. Jesus is commonly explained as the Son of God, but also he's sort-of like a body part of God -- and there's also a Holy Ghost involved that's sort-of a third thing, but also the Holy Ghost is also sort-of another body part of both Jesus and God -- I really don't understand it, but apparently it's super important and something that caused major disagreements among early Christian scholars. What are the practical implications?

- God talking through the burning bush. What the heck was going on there? Is there any explanation of why the burning bush was the form God chose to manifest? Has anyone else managed to set a bush on fire and hold an actual conversation with the Creator of the Cosmos? Has anyone tried performing, say, 10,000 experiments, setting 100 species of bushes on fire with 100 different firestarting methods, with a super sensitive microphone in case the voice is very faint, and a bunch of fancy physics gear to look for weird particles or radiation that might be emitted as a side effect of opening a DM to the Sysadmin of the Universe?

- One of the Old Testament prophets (Elijah I think?) at the end of his life, was taken into Heaven on a chariot of fire. That's exactly how I'd expect people from a couple millenia ago describe a rocket launch. Could this have been an instance of space travel?

- The angels come from heaven and look super weird -- apparently frightening to humans because they always open conversations with "Do not be afraid". Could angels be aliens?

- The city turned to ash in a flash of light. Could this be a description of a nuclear bomb? What about the survivor who turned around to look at it, and got petrified into a pillar of salt? Is there any known physical phenomenon that could account for that? Has anyone found those ruins and tested them for radiation, weird isotopes, etc.? Has anyone found the pillar of salt? Is it good old NaCl, or some other kind of salt? Is there DNA preserved in it? Is there any evidence of other ancient cities being nuked, or people being turned into pillars of salt?

- The Ten Commandments etched into stone tablets with lightning. Are there any other known instances of lightning carving useful information in human language into stone or other materials? Are the tablets themselves still around? Has anyone tested them for radioactive isotopes or other weird stuff that might still be around a couple thousand years later, either from the lightning or from God's power directing the lightning?

- I'm super confused about why God doesn't do more. If I was God, I'd definitely smite some evildoers with lightning bolts. Heal those who are sick and shouldn't be. Resurrect those who are dead and shouldn't be. Set a bunch of bushes on fire everywhere and start reminding people they should be good. Use lightning to write a proof or disproof of P=NP on a stone tablet during the Super Bowl in front of thousands of live witnesses, and millions more watching on TV.

- I'm super confused about how God is supposed to be good. He gets super mad at us when we follow the sinful urges he built into us when he designed us, floods an entire country with water for 40 days because too many people were bad, punished people for crap their ancestors did, and only stopped when we killed his son? That sounds like a narcissistic bully who's prone to falling into murderous rages. Not any father figure I'd want to have.