To reference something in popular culture, I would recommend the movie Akira.
Akira is a scientific experiment using nanomachines and technology that refocuses cosmic knowledge into a single being. To explain somewhat quickly, we evolved from much more primitive people and animals, and at each step of the way, we've learned something that becomes so routine that our social structure adapts it and the information is absorbed into our "cosmic knowledge". It's like what would happen if a kid knew the understanding of his parent, and his parent, and his parent, and everything previous. That kind of knowledge would not only make someone socially and intellectually brilliant, he'd have the knowledge of evolutionary change;
This, basically, gives Akira the power to mentally perform, well, anything.
The theme of the movie revolves around the dystopian cyber-punk future that awaits us if we continue our path of following knowledge without restraint, and the fallible human forces that guides our progress.
The metaphor presented in the film actually somewhat reflects the OP question itself as civilization bends their knees to their newly created God, with a resulting cataclysmic disaster that leaves few questioning the awesome consequences of tampering with things we don't understand.
