How do you think the world would react to demons and magic being real? How do you think governments around the world would react if something like secret organizations that fight such things turned out to be real especially if said organization was wide spread and had no real loyalty but to the church?
As always with people. It depends. On what the the thing is like. How it is revealed. What is happening in the world. And their own personal logic and ideology. All of these things can change their reaction. Both rational and irrational elements exist. To theorize on what I see as the main possibilities, the central thing would be losing grounding, and the need to regain it. There would be concern over rogue factions, although it being the church (I presume you mean Roman Catholic Church) would give it a shitload of leeway. People might question their trust of the church, particularly of course those who weren't religious and/or didn't like the church too much. Some nutballs somewhere would probably start talking about the end of days or something. There would be some xenophobia over the magic users, even after it being more normalized because of course prejudice exists. I'll leave you with that for now. P.S this plot is pretty cliche right now. So I would briefly consider changing it. Just a thought.
Well for one religions would go crazy. There would probably be religious police forces tasked with protecting people from demons and people who use magic for evil purposes.
Badly. People would react badly. Panic in the streets. Mobs overrunning governments. Killings in the street. Wait... That sounds like today. Cats sleeping with dogs. Men swiping left.
I'm also wondering if such a group would be tolerated as they are scattered all over the world with bases and members. Essentially they have sleeper cells all over the world and agents all on stand by. Also a lot of members are very fanatical and respect only God's law.
I'm going to focus solely on the magic here since demons are classically only bad and would therefore be shunned by pretty much everyone, demon-worshippers included once they see the torment and misery their masters bring. Plus they'd be a different species or something, similar to alien encounters which I think is a far more fundamental thing than I can describe right now. Ever seen "The legend of Korra"? A similar thing happens, except in reverse. Magic has been commonplace for 10 000 years and suddenly there's a guy who takes away people's magic (called bending). It divides society into benders and non-benders, the former classically being the rulers and the latter now demonized as all being "equalists" or anti-benders. In the short term I would assume that the powers that be (who are not the magic users in our society) will similarly demonize the magic users, try to develop specific counter measures and probably employ magic to fight magic. Assuming magic is a natural ability I would, in the long run, expect educational systems to be set up for magic users and something like a driver's license system to be implemented for the general populous for basic magic use, then advanced grades of skill also taught and licensed alongside a system that generally teaches discipline and responsible use. I'm thinking a martial arts type system here, since hand to hand combat is a natural ability which is potentially dangerous but which many people practice anyway. Higher degrees or those who want magic to be their profession might require an academy grade school to be set up, but those already exist for crafts such as acting, cooking, dancing, making music etc. But let's look at the real issue here. Why would you need magic or demons to form a secret society of outlaws? It seems you want to portray them as dangerous to mainstream society, and that's when a terrorist network sounds equally effective. After all what's the difference between a classic fire throwing mage or an Al Qaeda bomber? Both deal ranged explosive damage, then they kill some more people with guns or perhaps fingertip lightning and finally blow themselves up when they're cornered. Unless the mage could teleport out maybe, but I'm sure the powers that be would find some sort of solution to that (remember the movie "jumper"?) As for the last part... No group will be tolerated if they don't adhere to the laws of the nation they live in, unless they make their own (ISIL/ISIS/IS anyone?). After they do, they will be opposed depending on what laws they are using. And the pope might just lose some more of his followers. Then again I may be making entirely incorrect assumptions based on your original post.
I fail to see the difference in demons actually being real and humans simply thinking that they are real (which we did for thousands of years.) Governments and citizens were absolutely convinced that demons were real, walked among them, and mischievous. They financed projects to stop it or to protect themselves. The Vatican is one of the riches cities in the world. Magic doesn't need to be real, the human mind is more than enough to create convincing stories and imagery of magic. I imagine that the world world revert to something like the dark ages.
It's not that long ago that we thought witches were real and burnt them at the stake. At that point in time, society thought that was the right way to handle "witches". As society evolves, learns and understands more it would just adapt and I think things would become the norm. I may just equate someone who had magical powers to a lottery winner, and a demon to someone like Hitler for example. I'd say governments wouldn't care if the loyalty of some secret organisation was to the church. They'd care more about the fact that it wasn't their own secret organisation i.e. their lack of ability to control the organisation full stop.
People will believe what they want to believe. Many religious people will take the news as incontrovertible proof that all their religious ideas are absolutely true. They will perceive demon possession in all who hold alternative views. People will feel justified in fighting perceived demons to cleans the world of evil. Opinions will differ. Then the killing starts. All countries in the world that have a significant proportion of religious people will descend into a state of civil war. (Even if it is revealed that the whole thing was a hoax, the troubles continue as people would be set in their ways and no one can prove demons don't exist.) Finland becomes a superpower.
I don't know about demons and supernatural forces or how people would react, but magic is actually very real in that we create magic all the time. It's just that none of us have the ability to time-travel in order to gain a proper perspective on the magic we create. Imagine handing a small, black rectangular box to Ben Franklin and telling him that with his little box (and keep in mind he was open-minded for his time) that he could talk to anyone in the world, look up the cause of his rash, learn a new recipe for beer, write one of his articles for Poor Richard's Almanac, read without ever printing a single letter, calculate vast sums of numbers, or sling fat birds at fat pigs that built a fortress of wood and steel after stealing your eggs. Or go back to the Spanish court alongside Christopher Columbus and tell them that what he's about to do will one day be done in about eight hours while seated alongside 250 other people who are enjoying a drink and a hot meal. Someday we will have levitation to help move heavy objects, smartphones that scan for cancer, and contact lenses that take photo/video AND project images that only we can see--all by voice command, perhaps even thought command. Magic.
Yes, but that's the thing. Magic is essentially unexplained forces. That it's defining trait. If you were to propose an energy that generates heat, that's not crazy at all. It's just when it's an unexplained force that allows people to fling fireballs.
Magic can be defined as the evocation of supernatural forces to manipulate or forecast events in the natural world (reality). Since magic is incongruent with physical laws it is by definition impossible (in reality). What you are describing is not magic. It's magnificent and calling it magic is kind of an insult to the millions of people around the world making it possible for us to enjoy all the modern conveniences technology has to offer. It may have looked like magic using a past perspective but it's clearly not. Much like the explanation of Marvel's Thor, at least how I understood it Within the context however, your statement could be interpreted as saying that humanity would react similarly to the existence of supernatural as they might to the introduction of a new technology (hesitant at first and then with full commitment), or it could be interpreted as saying that none of this need be possible as long as we can do much more amazing things than magic through technological advancements.
"Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic." Arthur C Clarke. The story could actually be about aliens who are mistaken for demons because of their appearance, and who have advanced technology which is miss-perceived as the supernatural.
This discussion about science and magic comparison and stuff is cool, but it's getting a little off topic. The question is about a defined magical circumstance and how the world would react.
How would the world react if magic that could cheat physics existed? We would revert to the same behavior and culture we had back when we actually believed in it. A new dark age in which peopl hid from each other. Only this time they would have a rational cause to hide. That would be my first instinct. I would want a piece of land far from others in order to minimize exposure to magic (even if, and especially if I had magic). I'd build a house as low to the ground and as hidden as possible and then find a way to discretely defend the property's perimeter. It would likely be hell on earth if magic ran rampant across the planet.
If recent world events are anything to go by, I'd say the people dealing with this issue will be acting on insufficient information which is mostly fabricated. They will blunder about cocking everything up and then thy'll blame other people for the consequences.
Probably with denial, it's not like everyone around the world suddenly had it proven to them at the same time. Unless they DID, in which case it'd require some catastrophic event to do that, and they'd probably react by having to survive it, and wouldn't give it as much thought beyond that.
I think most of you are being far too dramatic. Life always goes on. With or without magic in the world, a farmer will need to farm, a car dealer will try to sell his cars and a politician will look into new legislation. Most people believe in miracles (which carries the same definition as magic) and most people are hesitant to approach a blood-splattered colourful geometric pattern. Do they stop lumbering? Do they stop setting up lab experiments, loving their children or going out on a Friday night? Nobody could know what would really happen because it's never happened and therefore we don't have any case studies. So there's a large portion of the world which will be unaffected entirely. There'd be a big fuss about magic being proven, scientists would quibble as to whether or not it's really magic and how to incorporate this into the scientific models. New laws would be adopted, at first exclusively against magic and later with responsible magic use... We'd end up in some sort of steampunk society where magic is systematically employed parallel to science for further advancements of our species. In the end our lives would be a whole lot easier, because we can circumvent the laws of nature to solve world hunger, reduce pollution, improve our infrastructure etc. Sure there'd be some panic in small magnitudes but I expect that to fizzle out quickly in favour of a more pragmatic approach. I don't think Exodus 22:18 would hold for very long when you see your neighbouring countries prosper under the use of responsible magic. There's a bunch of assumptions involved here of course such as that magic can be used by anyone but the natural ability would have to be practiced, taught, strengthened over time and with effort before you can start slinging fireballs. Or I might be completely naive and everyone does start killing everyone else.
Hi, People would react in a thousand different ways as always. But there are two different things you are revealing - demons and magic, and you have to come to terms with the idea that these are very different. Demons will be seen as religious / anti-religious. People on learning that they exist will obviously look to the churches for moral / practical leadership on how to deal with them - and every major religion has it's own particular beliefs regarding them. For example the Christian church may go for holy waterand exorcisms. But in the Islamic faith they would be djinn, and I have no idea what their practices would be in dealing with them. As for how individuals would respond - I expect many would go back to the various churches - skeptics would be laughed at, and congregations would change markedly depending on which particular faith could offer the best protection against demons. Magic is slightly different in that while it may have connotations regarding religion, I would not expect it to be seen as primarily a religious issue. It's more about faith - in the world. I would expect panic of course - and as always it seems that panic would begin with currencies / stock markets and banks. They always seem to lead a crisis. After that people would turn to those they believe have the ability to guide them - political authorities and scientists. How they would respond I don't know, but based on what they come up with will be the public reaction. Basic questions will be asked. First and foremost people will want to know if they are safe. Do the magical pose them dangers? How powerful are they? Can they be controlled? And what sort of damage can they do? Answer these questions and you have the start of how people will react. For example if a wizard is a very rare creature and has only limited abilities then people will quickly adapt. If those with magic are like the equivalent of rogue nuclear warheads wandering around, then expect utter panic. Likewise are their rules to magic? Things that people can understand and accept? It's easier to deal with something emotionally if you know what it is and what it can do. Preparing for the unknown is much more frightening. Cheers, Greg.
This post sounds like a chapter already (for those who write fiction). I imagine that a committee on magic (if it were proven to be real) would discuss it much the same way. I'll say this much: the richest magician in the world would be one who could do body sculpting and age reversal. I actually daydreamed the concept of magically doing exactly that (for a short story I never wrote), but the process I imagined is excruciatingly painful, and carries the risk of heart failure. For a cool look at the concept of teleportation (which I believe will never be invented), read Stephen King's short story "The Jaunt". It seeks to explain the science fiction behind the deadly risks involved in teleportation and how scientists overcame enormous obstacles as it was developed.
I think people would initially be very positive and enthusiastic at the prospect of doing magic themselves. But when they find they have no magical ability, 'sour grapes' will set in and they'll declare the whole practice to be evil and demonic and demand it all be banned.
