Some people, in short, want to be God, for the power aspect, but in my personal experience, I have not seen God act directly, only through the hands of humans, and we plainly have a very poor track record of doing so.
What we call "Acts of God" are solely disasters; unkind in my opinion!
We all get to choose whether to advance the common good or selfish desire. Sci-Fi writers extrapolate their present time and technology into a future where enormous power is wielded. So, whether that's Monsters on Main Street, using very little power (some EMP?) [0]
> Meanwhile, at a nearby hilltop, two humanoid aliens are observing the riot on Maple Street while using a device to manipulate the neighborhood's power. They comment on how simply fiddling with routine leads people to descend into paranoia and panic that can be exploited. They also discuss their intention to use this strategy to conquer Earth, one neighborhood at a time.
OR the morality play where inhabitants of a planet decide whether to end nationalism, racism, religious intolerance and so on, or cease to exist. And we are counting down to the latter. [1]
[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Monsters_Are_Due_on_Maple_...
bookofjoe•3mo ago