# Stories about the disproof of God **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [January 10, 2023, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983 "2023-01-10T17:57:55Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/1 "2023-01-10T17:57:56Z")
There are lots of stories about some proof of God’s existence being found in the digits of pi, or God returning to Earth wrap things up, or some aliens pretending to be God that don’t fool the true believers, or rebels fighting back against an oppressive religious dictatorship, or evidence for the simulation hypothesis, or a con man starts a new religion, etc. Can anyone name fictional works in which the opposite is broadly true? A physicist once and for all disproves God, or suddenly nobody believes in religion anymore, or (xyz) shows there’s no afterlife? Basically any story in which the theme is that there is not and has never been anything supernatural, full stop. ‘God died’ or ‘this individual lost their faith’ don’t count for the purposes of this exercise. In-universe, we know is no God, even if people used to believe in His/Her/Their existence(s). ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/2 "2023-01-10T18:04:17Z")
Not helpful, but way back as a kid (early 70s I believe) I read a story where somehow they proved there was no afterlife…but then years later they discovered a life form on a planet that if you let attach to you like a parasite, then there would be a form of it. Wasn’t a particularly good story and might have been a short story and was so long ago/so young I don’t remember any particulars. ---
**Author:** ![iiandyiiii](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/iiandyiiii/32/7924_2.png) [@iiandyiiii](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/iiandyiiii)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/3 "2023-01-10T18:07:17Z")
This sounds vaguely like Dan Simmons’ Endymion, which was a novel and not a short story. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/4 "2023-01-10T18:12:24Z")
Another version would be a story in which there was never any religion at all. > [@BlinkingDuck](#): > > Not helpful, but way back as a kid (early 70s I believe) I read a story where somehow they proved there was no afterlife…but then years later they discovered a life form on a planet that if you let attach to you like a parasite, then there would be a form of it. Wasn’t a particularly good story and might have been a short story and was so long ago/so young I don’t remember any particulars. That sounds vaguely like the Cruciform parasite in the Hyperion books by Dan Simmons. edit: Ninja’d! ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/5 "2023-01-10T18:14:19Z")
Could be…but the one I was thinking out would have been too old for that…by 20-25 years or so. I tried finding it but I just don’t remember enough to search by and my Google-fu is weak. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/6 "2023-01-10T18:18:14Z")
One story which includes a disproof of all Earth’s religions is The Light of Other Days by Arthur C Clarke and Stephen Baxter. A form of cross-time viewer technology allows historians to look back at any and all events in the past, and they find that there is no basis to any of the world’s religions. However this doesn’t go back to before the Big Bang (IIRC), so new uncertainties allow the development of new beliefs. No matter how well you disprove God, She will always find the small print. ---
**Author:** ![Jasmine](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jasmine/32/2964_2.png) [@Jasmine](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jasmine)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/7 "2023-01-10T18:22:45Z")
If we cannot prove the existence of God via science, then it is only logical to assume that we cannot disprove the existence of God in that way, either. The purpose of science is discover “how”, but the purpose of religion is to determine “who”. The two fields are tasked with different questions. ---
**Author:** ![brossa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/brossa/32/3040_2.png) [@brossa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/brossa)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/8 "2023-01-10T18:24:45Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > If we cannot prove the existence of God via science, then it is only logical to assume that we cannot disprove the existence of God in that way, either. That doesn’t prevent authors from writing stories in which God is proven. Does it prevent stories in which God is disproven? ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/9 "2023-01-10T18:25:26Z")
OP is not looking to debate the philosophical question of whether disproving the ill-formed hypothesis of God is really possible. They are just looking for fictional stories where some limited aspect of that purportedly happens - that’s a much lower bar and a different question. ---
**Author:** ![eburacum45](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eburacum45/32/8690_2.png) [@eburacum45](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/eburacum45)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/10 "2023-01-10T18:31:52Z")
> [@Riemann](#): > > They are just looking for fictional stories where some limited aspect of that purportedly happens - that’s a much lower bar and a different question. Yes, and I think The Light of Other Days fits that description, more-or-less. You can only go so far down the disproof route before you reach the un-disproveable. ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/11 "2023-01-10T18:32:24Z")
The 2009 film **The Invention of Lying** takes place in a world where everyone tells the truth and religion doesn’t exist, until the main character gains the ability to lie and starts telling everyone stories about an all-powerful “man in the sky.” ---
**Author:** ![simster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/simster/32/1047_2.png) [@simster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/simster)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/12 "2023-01-10T18:32:36Z")
Hitchikers Guide - [Babel Fish entry -](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Babel_Fish) > The whole argument runs, roughly, as follows. > > 1. God refuses to prove that they exist because proof denies faith and without faith God is nothing. > 2. Man then counters that the Babel fish is a dead giveaway because it could not have evolved by chance. So the fish proves that God exists - but hence also, by God’s own reasoning (see 1) that God does _not_ exist. > 3. God says that they hadn’t thought of that (hadn’t thought of 2) and promptly disappears in a puff of logic. > 4. Man then remarks about how easy that was (and gets himself killed on the next pedestrian crossing). > > It should be noted that most leading theologians think that Colluphid’s argument is “a load of dingo’s kidneys.” ---
**Author:** ![burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/burpo_the_wonder_mutt/32/365_2.png) [@burpo\_the\_wonder\_mutt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/burpo_the_wonder_mutt)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/13 "2023-01-10T18:38:06Z")
When Homer had the crayon removed from his brain and became smart, he was working on a flat tax proposal and accidentally proved the non-existence of God. He showed this to Flanders, who had to agree. Ned then burned it before the Word got out, but Homer had already distributed flyers on windshields all over town. ---
**Author:** ![ParallelLines](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/parallellines/32/3575_2.png) [@ParallelLines](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParallelLines)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/14 "2023-01-10T18:47:07Z")
An interesting twist on the op’s question would be the one page short story “[answer](https://www.roma1.infn.it/~anzel/answer.html)” by Fredric Brown. Please read it first since it’ll take less than a minute. In short there was no God - a situation that has sadly changed. Part of a huge group of stories in which our search for God leads to it’s creation. My favorite probably being Asimov’s"the last question". Similar issues are the core of the Hyperion and Endymion novels mentioned uphread ---
**Author:** ![Riemann](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/riemann/32/3133_2.png) [@Riemann](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Riemann)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/15 "2023-01-10T18:51:02Z")
Morrow’s _Godhead_ trilogy sort of fits OP’s parameters, inasmuch as “God has died, leaving behind a two-mile-long corpse.” So on the one hand that proves that God _did_ exist, but it proves that he doesn’t now. Obviously it’s satire, but it may be of interest in the exploration of the consequences. > **[James K. Morrow | The Godhead Trilogy](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_K._Morrow#The_Godhead_Trilogy)** > > In the 1990s Morrow devoted most of his writing energy to an ambitious project spun from the premise that God has died, leaving behind a two-mile-long corpse. While each book in the Godhead Trilogy features a different protagonist and an independent plot, certain characters and motifs recur throughout the cycle, as does the Corpus Dei. > In Towing Jehovah (Harcourt Brace, 1994) a disgraced supertanker captain, Anthony Van Horne, is commissioned by the angel Raphael to tow the divine cadaver to its... ---
**Author:** ![Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/q.q.switcheroo/32/5713_2.png) [@Q.Q.Switcheroo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.Q.Switcheroo)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 6:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/16 "2023-01-10T18:57:29Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > (xyz) shows there’s no afterlife From Woody Allen’s play **Death** : > MAN I was dead once. > KLEINMAN Pardon me? > MAN Dead; I’ve been dead. During the war. Wounded. There I lay on an operating table. Surgeons sweating to save my life. Suddenly they lost me – pulse stopped. It was all over. One of 'em, I’m told, had the presence of mind to massage my heart. Then it began beating again, so I lived, but for a tiny moment there, I was officially dead… According to science, too – dead… but that was a long time ago. […] > KLEINMAN So how was it? > MAN What? > KLEINMAN Being dead. Did you see anything? > MAN No. It was just… nothing. > KLEINMAN You don’t remember any afterlife? > MAN No. > KLEINMAN My name didn’t come up? > MAN There was nothing. There is nothing after, Kleinman. Nothing. ---
**Author:** ![Voyager](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/voyager/32/133_2.png) [@Voyager](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Voyager)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/17 "2023-01-10T19:01:03Z")
Which god? The standard SF future has no place for our standard human gods, but a story in which all possible gods are disproven would be tough to write. ---
**Author:** ![Gatopescado](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gatopescado/32/5711_2.png) [@Gatopescado](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gatopescado)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 7:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/18 "2023-01-10T19:34:19Z")
> [@brossa](#): > > …proof of God’s existence being found in the digits of pi, or God returning to Earth wrap things up… Ah! I get it now! We’ve been saying it all wrong! It should be, _“When come back, bring Pi”_ ---
**Author:** ![Czarcasm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/czarcasm/32/4050_2.png) [@Czarcasm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Czarcasm)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 7:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/19 "2023-01-10T19:44:16Z")
The purpose of science is to find out answers to questions, whereas the purpose of religion is to assume the answer then find questions that support the answer. ---
**Author:** ![Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/13edae/32.png) [@Stranger\_On\_A\_Train](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Stranger_On_A_Train)\ **Post date:** [January 10, 2023, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983/20 "2023-01-10T19:54:02Z")
Have you not read Oolon Colluphid’s trilogy of philosophical blockbusters: _[Where God Went Wrong](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Where_God_Went_Wrong)_ , _[Some More of God’s Greatest Mistakes](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Some_More_of_God%27s_Greatest_Mistakes)_ and _[Who is this God Person Anyway?](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Who_is_this_God_Person_Anyway%3F)_, or at least his final word on the topic _[Well, That About Wraps It Up For God](https://hitchhikers.fandom.com/wiki/Well,_That_About_Wraps_It_Up_For_God)_? Stranger [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/stories-about-the-disproof-of-god/977983.md?page=2)