History Main / GodIsFlawed

* In ''Anime/HaibaneRenmei'' Rakka fills out the blanks in a crumpled old book that is supposed to tell the origin of the world with a story of her own invention, where God makes mistakes every step of the way, but each mistake makes the world a more beautiful place than He could have predicted, and God sees them as good.

* [[spoiler:Marle]] in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Tetris 2]]''. [[spoiler:Being the Will of the Worlds, she created Squares out of loneliness and gave him a role involving managing order while she focused on fun. However, her not properly explaining Squares' role to him as well as not taking his maturity into account leads him to get very confused when they first witnessed the ''Puyo Puyo'' and ''Tetris'' worlds merging. Bad things happen as a result of this.]]

* In ''Literature/SoLongAndThanksForAllTheFish'', we see God's Final Message to His Creation: [[spoiler:"We apologise for the inconvenience."]] [[spoiler:Upon seeing them, ''Marvin'' feels ''good'' about it.]]

* In Strugatsky brothers novel "Overburdened with Evil" Wandering Jew depicts God this way. Every God's creation is burdened with evil and God looks for a great man that is able to cure the world from said evil. The ending implies that one such person was finally found. God is also not omnipotent in this novel. The narrator is an astronomer, who published a massively incorrect theory based on miscalculation. He is recruited by promise to fix this issue. The problem was fixed by changing laws of nature and rearranging the stars to suit the theory. In the past. However, it took several months and Wandering Jew mentioned that the task was rather challenging for his patron.

* In Olaf Stapledon's "The Starmaker" when viewed the title creator deity is seen as a work in progress. Its earliest universes are so badly made that the residual memory of them is what Hell is based on while anticipation of its future creations are what Heaven is based on. The current universe, ours, is at the midpoint.

* In ''The Acid House'' Boab meets God in a pub who just like him is a lazy apathetic loser. He simply doesn't care about what's happening with his creations thinking that he already gave them enough. Most importantly, God hates himself for his lack of will to use his overwhelming powers. [[spoiler: But because being immortal he can't punish himself he wants to vent the anger on the creation so similar to him i.e. Boab.]]

* [[ThePowersThatBe The three goddesses]] from ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' franchise. Despite being basically [[TheMaker omnipotent]], many of the problems in Hyrule (and [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaMajorasMask other]] [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTwilightPrincess worlds]]) boil down to them tossing the IdiotBall around, [[OrcusOnHisThrone when they bother to do anything at all]]. If [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaSkywardSword Zelda is to be believed]], they created the Triforce as a symbol of humanity's limitless potential... despite it being [[AGodAmI god complex waiting to happen]]. They also don't seem to have much influence over [[TheChosenMany those lucky few]] who get a piece, for good or bad, though that's possibly because there are [[GodOfEvil other forces at work]]. Their smartest idea by far was to let someone else do [[DivineDelegation the Goddess-ing]] and [[TheChosenOne Hero-ing]]. Then there's [[VideoGame/TheLegendOfZeldaTheWindWaker that one time]] where they tried [[TheGreatFlood an especially costly strategy]] to [[FinalSolution wipe out Ganon's forces once and for all]]... [[WhatASenselessWasteOfHumanLife and failed]].

* ''VideoGame/MortalKombat's'' Raiden fluctuates between being a cruel and petty god who cares little for humans to one who is well-intentioned but constantly screws things up on a monumental scale.

* [[spoiler:Marle]] in ''[[VideoGame/PuyoPuyo Puyo Puyo Tetris 2]]''. [[spoiler:Being the Will of the Worlds, she created Squares out of loneliness and to keep her company. However, her not properly explaining Squares' role to him as well as not taking his maturity into account leads him to get very confused when they first witnessed the ''Puyo Puyo'' and ''Tetris'' worlds merging. Bad things happen as a result of this.]]

** The Beast With A Billion Backs is about an EldritchAbomination that rules Heaven (which is actually a Fluffy-Cloud EldritchLocation and angels are non-sentient birds shaped like people). Despite being all-loving, they're crippled by jealousy and immediately ban everyone because ''one guy'' sent a letter to his friend, accidentally breaking the strange 'no relationships with other universes' rule.

-->'''God''': Yknow the expression "It's LonelyAtTheTop?" That's when you're talkin' about presidents and Streisand. Imagine what it's like for me.\\

** This is an overreaching theme for Film/{{Tron}} in general. The Master Control Program believed itself to be a deity among systems, but it was a chess program that Dillinger lost control of, and Flynn sneers at [[TheDragon Sark]] that Sark's just another program.."One that should have been erased." The renegade programs view Users, like Flynn, to be gods. Of course, Flynn splashes cold water on that notion when Tron brings it up.

** Many little gods are so petty and selfish that sometimes humans would be better off without them. With the seven Incarnae paying them no attention, the Celestial and Terrestrial Bureaucracies are corrupt and inefficient, and the Elemental Courts are out to lunch -- gods who do care and try to do their jobs right are still numerous, but they're hampered and sometimes persecuted by all the ones who don't. The only place where the divine Courts still more-or-less function is where they're forced to by the agents of a despotic human theocracy led by an objectively wrong religion.
** Then there are the Primordials, who built all this in the first place ...they started out as inhuman, incomprehensible things somewhere between Titans and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, and after being imprisoned by the gods most of them have devolved into MadGod territory. The reason the war ended is that one suffered a ''psychotic break'' to understand that other sapient creatures might have opinions. Meanwhile, the two free Primordials who sided with the gods have wandered off somewhere else, and let Creation rot. The main reason Creation worked when the Primordials ran things is because they drove the gods and humans as slaves.

** All Seven Demiurges count in their own ways; in spite of their all-consuming evils, they're still people. They just happen to cause cosmically more death and destruction than mortals.[[note]]Mottom is a high-class bitch who is so afraid of death and decay that she murders young virgins to power her FountainOfYouth, Mammon has lost his mind to dementia along with his greed and is generally too impotent to stop 000001 from controlling his empire, Solomon David tries to be a good Emperor but his actions are filled with pride and spite, Gog-Agog is quirky but monstrous to her own followers, Jadis just wants to die as soon as possible, Incubus doesn't care about what he has but what he believes he deserves like respect, and Jagganoth is basically an AxCrazy Goku.[[/note]]
** May also veer into GodIsEvil, if one can still believe [[OmnicidalManiac Jagganoth]]: [[spoiler:that Metatron ''made up YISUN'' to justify his totalitarian rulership of Heaven; in truth, ''he'' is the TopGod and blames a perfect God who made him as an excuse for his flawed and possibly malevolent behavior]]. This still counts, [[DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu because Zoss pummeled this supposedly unkillable and near-omnipotent entity into submission]] [[FateWorseThanDeath and crippled him so thoroughly that no amount of scheming will stop the endless eldritch pain coursing through his quadriplegic body]].

** The nebula that Bender believes is God is powerful and rational, but doesn't seem to remember its own possibly artificial origins and is highly suggestible on the matter. [[NotSoOmniscientAfterAll It is incredibly knowledgeable but far from omniscient]], and initially uncertain where the Earth is in the universe. It's possible he was simply pretending to prevent unnecessary effects occurring. He explained just how difficult it is to be God-do too much and the people become dependent on you, do too little and they stop believing you. He explains the only way to do things right is make it so no one can be sure if you did anything. As he set up the ending so that they would go back and save the monks, it's implied his seeming faults were merely another part of his act.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The few times God has appeared in show, he's been portrayed as a decent guy. [[KingOfAllCosmos A hippo-monkey-cat who's a practicing Buddhist,]] but a nice guy. Flawed because of his long-time practice of only letting Mormons into Heaven...which meant everyone else went to Hell. Including Buddhists. The first idea (God being Buddhist) is probably a spoof of a real-life concept in Buddhism that according to some scriptures [[http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha068.htm God himself recognized Buddha’s superiority]][[note]]Or more exactly, Mahabrahma, the King of Devas, considered by many Buddhists the inspiration of the God from the monotheistic religions[[/note]] which [[ShownTheirWork Shows Their Work.]] The second idea of only letting Mormons enter heaven is [[TakeThat mocking the belief]] that some real-life fundamentalist churches have that only members of their specific group would enter heaven no matter what behavior good or bad non-members may have. On the other hand, Hell is a pretty decent place for most people (only serious evildoers get actually tortured), while [[GoodIsBoring Heaven is so dull that only the Mormons can enjoy it]]. Even serious evildoers often are able to do rather well in Hell. Saddam Hussein managed to romance Satan himself (who turns out to be not too bad a guy after all, and certainly not deserving of what happens to him) and parlay being Satan's BastardBoyfriend into ''taking over Hell and using it to invade Earth''.

[[folder:Web Comics]]

** It's kind of a theme for the author. In [[http://www.smbc-comics.com/index.php?db=comics&id=2616#comic this one]], God was hoping we'd have some answers for him.

A supreme being can be [[GodIsGood good]] or [[GodIsEvil evil]] (or both or [[GodIsNeutral neither]]), but in either case they ought to be... [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin supreme]]. Right?

However, in some works, we find a god who is prejudiced and flawed. NotSoOmniscientAfterAll, maybe even a bit of a bigot. Worshippers who try to [[ReligiousRussianRoulette blackmail God into answering prayers]] (or [[SmiteMeOhMightySmiter foolishly goad God]]) are unlikely to get an answer... at least a favorable one.

This trope is traditionally played on polytheistic gods but is also getting more and more common on the monotheistic God. With UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, this is still [[JesusWasWayCool usually avoided]]. But [[JesusWasCrazy not always]].

However, in some works we find a god who is prejudiced and flawed. NotSoOmniscientAfterAll, maybe even a bit of a bigot. Worshippers who try to [[ReligiousRussianRoulette blackmail God into answering prayers]] (or [[SmiteMeOhMightySmiter foolishly goad God]]) are unlikely to get an answer... at least a favorable one.

This trope is traditionally played on polytheistic gods, but is also getting more and more common on the monotheistic God. With UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}}, this is still [[JesusWasWayCool usually avoided]]. But [[JesusWasCrazy not always]].

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'': During the Future Trunks Saga, this is one of the primary arguments between Gowasu, the [[TopGod Supreme Kai]] of [[AlternateUniverse Universe 10]], and his apprentice Zamasu. Zamasu is firmly convinced that all mortals are [[HumansAreFlawed flawed]] and they should be wiped out, and disagrees with Gowasu's statement that the gods themselves are also flawed and must also learn and grow like the mortals they watch over. It gets worse when he starts to believe he averts this trope while all the other gods are just as bad as the mortals since they do nothing about mortal affairs. Gowasu himself is a shining example of this trope: while undoubtedly [[GodIsGood a good god]], he turns out to be a HorribleJudgeOfCharacter in regards to Zamasu, taking him as his apprentice despite Zamasu's [[FantasticRacism adamant racism against mortal life]] and other signs that he's [[TheMentallyDisturbed not entirely stable]], with everything Gowasu does to try to convince Zamasu that not all mortals are bad [[AdviceBackfire backfiring]] and eventually driving him to a FaceHeelTurn. Gowasu is well-aware of this, and [[MyGreatestFailure very much regrets it]].

* In ''Manga/SaintYoungMen'', the vast majority of the humour comes from seeing two divine figures (it is notable that they are UsefulNotes/{{Jesus}} and Buddha, who are both explicitly human as well as divine) constantly making mistakes, screwing up and annoying each other, although their personality flaws are relatively minor (Jesus is prone to making impulse {{Cosplay}} purchases, and tends to be quite needing of attention, whereas Buddha is something of a CloudCuckooLander with terrible body image thanks to all the fat statues). They also suffer from PowerIncontinence under certain conditions (Buddha glows when he is virtuous or angry, Jesus's stigmata bleed whenever he feels persecuted, and both of them occasionally float without meaning to). Obviously, a perfect being would be able to control such embarrassing faux pas as accidentally turning all nearby water to wine whenever in a good mood.
** For bonus points Jesus is Hydrophobic. IE afraid of water. The reason he walked on water? Because he was too scared to swim. When he tried to force himself to submerge his head under the water in a pool he wound up parting it like the Red Sea.

* In one issue of ''Comicbook/{{Valhalla}}'', Heimdall is in love with [[LoveGoddess Freya]]. Just as she is about to let him in, he get a counterproductive fit of jealousy and basically calls her a dirty tramp. However, he quickly realize what a {{Jerkass}} he has been, and she forgives him. This is just one example among many: most of the Norse gods were flawed even in the oldest recorded myths, and ''Valhalla'' keeps and further develops this characterization.

* In ''Literature/BlaTornet'', the world was created by a guy who one day had a really bad cold. In his fever he happened to give his angels some really bad orders. Thousands of years of tragedy later, these are still in effect. And no, this is ''not'' PlayedForLaughs at all. [[DrivenToSuicide Quite the contrary, actually]].

* In Erik Wahlström's ''Literature/{{God}}'' the title character starts out as a petulant and JerkAss teenager who slowly matures and learns to take some responsibility for His creation. In the end he ends up like an elderly corporate chairman a bit out of the loop, but he manages to settle his differences with {{Satan}}, and the two retire together as friends.

* In Strugatsky brothers novel "Overburdened with Evil" Wandering Jew depicts God this way. Every God's creation is burdened with evil and God looks for a great man that is able to cure the world from said evil. The ending implies that one such person was finally found. God is also not omnipotent in this novel. The narrator is an astronomer, who published massively incorrect theory based on miscalculation. He is recruited by promise to fix this issue. The problem was fixed by changing laws of nature and rearranging the stars to suit the theory. In the past. However it took several months and Wandering Jew mentioned that the task was rather challenging for his patron.
* Urizen, a character in Creator/WilliamBlake's poetry--his name parsed by scholars as "Your Reason"--is one God among many. In some ways he resembles the Demiurge of Gnostic belief. Such facile explanations, however, brush aside deeply-woven nuances; Blake spent a lifetime forging a personal cosmology of extraordinary complexity. Desiring order, Urizen seeks to impose it on Man and the Cosmos. He possesses power to create, but by regarding himself as The Only Creator? Urizen, ultimately, reveals himself as pathetic: mired in self-deception. His inherently-flawed works contribute to human suffering; Blake's paintings depict Urizen bound within the {{Ur Example}} of "mind-forg'd manacles," prefiguring those in which all humanity will entrap themselves.

* In the ''Literature/JessicaChrist'' series, God is basically good-natured and genuinely trying to help and protect humankind, but He is also frequently grouchy, petty, self-obsessed and not nearly as infallible as He likes to pretend. It's put best in [[EstablishingSeriesMoment the prologue of the first book]]:

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', given that God tends to work InMysteriousWays, there is much debate in- and out-of-universe about whether GodIsGood or GodIsEvil, but it's clear that God is not perfect. The Season 5 finale supports the "good" position. God AKA [[spoiler:Chuck]] states that He wanted everyone to realize that FAMILY is what it's all about; not power, not good, not evil...family and love. Dean and Sam choosing family over everything else is supposed to be proof of that and why God did not need to directly intervene. On the other hand, God's own ParentalFavoritism and later [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment]] of His own children, the angels, forcing Michael to choose between his brother Lucifer or his father, comments by Sam and Dean about God just being another deadbeat father, and the treatment of God's earlier creations the Leviathans, and general refusal to do anything about the problems His abandonment has caused create most of the problems from Season 5 onward and point to God being a {{hypocrite}} who claims to be good and value family, but uses it and free will to justify ignoring His responsibilities and the mess His abandonment created among the angels. It finally takes the re-emergence of His destructive sister TheAntiGod for Him to intervene directly in season 11. God explains that He was so hands-off because when He tried being a helicopter parent, it ended up backfiring. The season 14 ending, on the other hand [[spoiler:definitely comes down on the side of {{God Is Evil}}, as He kills Jack and starts a Zombie Apocalypse when Sam and Dean don't want to play along for His entertainment.]]

* Early portrayals of the Abrahamic God appear show Him to have quite the temper, and there exists at least one point where Moses wins an argument with God, calming Him down after the Jews disobeyed Him. The implications would be that righteous anger is ''not'' a flaw, that God wants His children to speak openly with him, etc. Jesus Christ would later call self-righteous religious leaders out for how flawed their concepts of flaws and perfections were, reminding them that the Lord, not they, sets the standards for perfect and flawed.

* Mahabrahma the King of Devas in UsefulNotes/{{Buddhism}} is, according to some Buddhists, the founder of UsefulNotes/{{Hinduism}} and/or the monotheistic religions when he, wrongfully, thought he was the Creator (notice that Buddhism does not believe in the existence of universal creators at all). Mahabrahma is not considered evil by Buddhists, only misguided. Nevertheless some Buddhist text established that Mahabrahma accepted Buddha's teachings.

* In ''TabletopGame/WerewolfTheApocalypse'', the three member of the Triat are supposed to be working together to keep the forces of the cosmos in balance. Unfortunately, they're either too busy struggling against each other or too indifferent to perform their tasks properly. For example, the Weaver imprisoned the Wyrm in the web of creation, the Wyrm is slowly killing Gaia in his attempt to break free, and the Wyld could care less.

** Then there are the Primordials, who built all this in the first place ...they started out as inhuman, incomprehensible things somewhere between Titans and {{Eldritch Abomination}}s, and after being imprisoned by the gods most of them have devolved into MadGod territory. The reason the war ended is because one suffered a ''psychotic break'' to understand that other sapient creatures might have opinions. Meanwhile, the two free Primordials who sided with the gods have wandered off somewhere else, and let Creation rot. The main reason Creation worked when the Primordials ran things is because they drove the gods and humans as slaves.
* ''TabletopGame/Warhammer40000'': The GodEmperor is revered as the paragon of humanity (despite being a spirit bound to a dessicated corpse and [[FlatEarthAtheist an atheist]]), but his inability to consider people other than himself as important led to his downfall. His ignoring the wishes of his children, the Primarchs, led to them rebelling and/or joining Chaos (Angron just wanted to lead a SlaveRebellion, Lorgar wanted to worship him, Magnus wanted to study sorcery, etc.).

* In ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles'', [[spoiler: the soul of the Bionis, Zanza]], is very flawed. He has an immense amount of hubris, is very arrogant and believes himself to be the be-all end all who decides how life on the Bionis should live, wiping them out with Telethia on a whim should he feel they become close to breaking from the passage of Fate that he himself created, and claims to have done this many times before. Despite [[spoiler: being able to see Visions of what is to come]], he is not omnipotent, as the person who actually supplies him power is [[spoiler: Alvis, the Third God and the True Monado, who was originally a machine, and as such is not flawed like Zanza.]] His counterpart, [[spoiler: Meyneth, the soul of the Mechonis,]] is much more benevolent, but she still makes mistakes as well, as she [[spoiler: let Zanza wipe out and restart the cycle of creation on Bionis many times in the past without lifting a finger, only finally opposing his actions when he began to attack the people living on her Titan.]] However, the 2 Gods being flawed is very justified considering [[spoiler: both of them were originally Humans who became Gods through an experiment that destroyed and recreated the universe.]]
** In the sequel, ''VideoGame/XenobladeChronicles2'', The Architect who lives on Alrest [[spoiler: was really just a man named Klaus, the same Klaus who became Zanza in the world of Xenoblade 1, except he is the other half of that being. When the world was destroyed by the experiment, and he became a God, he realized the destruction he had wrought through his eagerness to create a new world and lamented it, despite starting his experiments in the hopes of creating a perfect world where people would not have to suffer and in turn, become evil and twisted like people had in his original home of Earth.]] As such, after creating Blades and Humans, he took an off hands approach and wanted people to live without his guidance and make a good world on their own. [[spoiler: This allowed Amalthus to climb the world tree and retrieve Malos and Mythra's Core Crystals, which then would proceed to ravage the world in their clash later known as the Aegis War, sinking 3 titans in the process. As a result of this, Amalthus would then try to attack and destroy Mythra, which led him to end up ruining Jin's life and beginning his [[StartOfDarkness start of darkness]]. By that same token, Amalthus had already been corrupted by the world around him, and those feelings of hatred he harbored towards Humanity and the World was what caused Malos to become evil and warped in the first place, and started the war.]] So because of the Architect's hands off approach, he inadvertently created the main antagonists of the game through his actions. God is not perfect here either. However, he still has much better intents and is much more benevolent than [[spoiler: his other half, Zanza, in Xenoblade 1's dimension.]]

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Makes frequent references to God being a flawed Being, and at times an outright DirtyOldMan. For instance, in the former example, he once was accused of "making Rosie wrong" (a reference to Rosie O Donnell's recent announcement that she was gay). In the latter example, he's depicted as lusting after women and wanting them for sex.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The few times God has appeared in show, he's been portrayed as a decent guy. [[KingOfAllCosmos A hippo-monkey-cat who's a practicing Buddhist,]] but a nice guy. Flawed because of his long-time practice of only letting Mormons into Heaven...which meant everyone else went to Hell. Including Buddhists. The first idea (God being Buddhist) is probably a spoof of a real life concept in Buddhism that according to some scriptures [[http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha068.htm God himself recognized Buddha’s superiority]][[note]]Or more exactly, Mahabrahma, the King of Devas, considered by many Buddhists the inspiration of the God from the monotheistic religions[[/note]] which [[ShownTheirWork Shows Their Work.]] The second idea of only letting Mormons enter heaven is [[TakeThat mocking the belief]] that some real-life fundamentalist churches have that only members of their specific group would enter heaven no matter what behavior good or bad non-members may have. On the other hand, Hell is a pretty decent place for most people (only serious evildoers get actually tortured), while [[GoodIsBoring Heaven is so dull that only the Mormons can enjoy it]]. Even serious evildoers often are able to do rather well in Hell. Saddam Hussein managed to romance Satan himself (who turns out to be not too bad a guy after all, and certainly not deserving of what happens to him) and parlay being Satan's BastardBoyfriend into ''taking over Hell and using it to invade Earth''.

* ''WesternAnimation/{{Futurama}}'': The ''Godfellas'' episode:
** The nebula that Bender believes is God is powerful and rational, but doesn't seem to remember its own possibly artificial origins and is highly suggestible on the matter. Also, it's initially uncertain where the Earth is in the universe. It's possible he was simply pretending to prevent unnecessary effects occurring. He explained just how difficult it is to be God-do too much and the people become dependent on you, do too little and they stop believing you. He explains the only way to do things right is make it so no one can be sure if you did anything. As he set up the ending so that they would go back and save the monks, it's implied his seeming faults were merely another part of his act.
** In that same episode, Bender had a colony of tiny people living on his body. Even when he tried to be a benevolent god, he screwed up so badly that they all died in the end.

* ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'': The few times God has appeared in show, he's been portrayed as a decent guy. [[KingOfAllCosmos A hippo-monkey-cat who's a practicing Buddhist,]] but a nice guy. Flawed because of his long-time practice of only letting Mormons into Heaven...which meant everyone else went to Hell. Including Buddhists. The first idea (God being Buddhist) is probably a spoof of a real life concept in Buddhism that according to some scriptures [[http://www.budsas.org/ebud/ebdha068.htm God himself recognized Buddha’s superiority]][[note]]Or more exactly, Mahabrahma, the King of Devas, considered by many Buddhists the inspiration of the God from the monotheistic religions[[/note]] which [[ShownTheirWork Shows Their Work.]] The second idea of only letting Mormons enter heaven is [[TakeThat mocking the belief]] that some real-life fundamentalist churches have that only members of their specific group would enter heaven no matter what behavior good or bad non-members may have. On the other hand, Hell is a pretty decent place for most people (only serious evildoers get actually tortured), while Heaven is so dull that only the Mormons can enjoy it. Even serious evildoers often are able to do rather well in Hell. Saddam Hussein managed to romance Satan himself (who turns out to be not too bad a guy after all, and certainly not deserving of what happens to him) and parlay being Satan's BastardBoyfriend into ''taking over Hell and using it to invade Earth''.

* [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGiCuFQM2Vo One episode of]] WebOriginal/ZinniaJones portrays God as a victim of peer pressure, with horrible consequences such as going along with barbaric cultural patterns until Jesus came along.

* ''WesternAnimation/FamilyGuy'': Makes frequent references to God being a flawed Being, and at times an outright DirtyOldMan. For instance, in the former example, he once was accused of "making Rosie wrong" (a reference to Creator/RosieODonnell's recent announcement that she was gay). In the latter example, he's depicted as lusting after women and wanting them for sex.

Compare HumansAreFlawed, GodIsInept, TheDevilIsALoser, StopWorshippingMe and WhatIfGodWasOneOfUs, as well as KingOfAllCosmos. May be due to there being PiecesOfGod strewn all over the cosmos.

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', given that God tends to work InMysteriousWays, there is much debate in- and out-of-universe about whether GodIsGood or GodIsEvil, but it's clear that God is not perfect. The Season 5 finale supports the "good" position. God AKA [[spoiler:Chuck]] states that He wanted everyone to realize that FAMILY is what it's all about; not power, not good, not evil...family and love. Dean and Sam choosing family over everything else is supposed to be proof of that and why God did not need to directly intervene. On the other hand, God's own ParentalFavoritism and later [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment]] of His own children, the angels, forcing Michael to choose between his brother Lucifer or his father, comments by Sam and Dean about God just being another deadbeat father, and the treatment of God's earlier creations the Leviathans, and general refusal to do anything about the problems His abandonment has caused create most of the problems from Season 5 onward and point to God being a {{hypocrite}} who claims to be good and value family, but uses it and free will to justify ignoring His responsibilities and the mess His abandonment created among the angels. It finally takes the re-emergence of His destructive sister TheAntiGod for Him to intervene directly in season 11. God explains that He was so hands-off because when He tried being a helicopter parent, it ended up backfiring. The season 14 ending, on the other hand [[spoiler:definitely comes down on the side of {{God Is Evil}}, as He starts a Zombie Apocalypse when Sam and Dean don't want to play along for His entertainment.]]

* In ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'', given that God tends to work InMysteriousWays, there is much debate in- and out-of-universe about whether GodIsGood or GodIsEvil, but it's clear that God is not perfect. The Season 5 finale supports the "good" position. God AKA [[spoiler:Chuck]] states that He wanted everyone to realize that FAMILY is what it's all about; not power, not good, not evil...family and love. Dean and Sam choosing family over everything else is supposed to be proof of that and why God did not need to directly intervene. On the other hand, God's own ParentalFavoritism and later [[ParentalAbandonment abandonment]] of His own children, the angels, forcing Michael to choose between his brother Lucifer or his father, comments by Sam and Dean about God just being another deadbeat father, and the treatment of God's earlier creations the Leviathans, and general refusal to do anything about the problems His abandonment has caused create most of the problems from Season 5 onward and point to God being a {{hypocrite}} who claims to be good and value family, but uses it and free will to justify ignoring His responsibilities and the mess His abandonment created among the angels. It finally takes the re-emergence of His destructive sister TheAntiGod for Him to intervene directly in season 11. God explains that He was so hands-off because when He tried being a helicopter parent, it ended up backfiring.

** Om gets better about this after ''Discworld/SmallGods'' due to BreakTheHaughty.
** The general pantheon in ''Discworld/TheLastHero'' notes that a god who doesn't want to end up dead, one way or another, needs to offer his followers something ''more'' than a lack of thunderbolts.
** Not exactly a god, but the Creator (who appears in ''Discworld/{{Eric}}'') is notoriously absent-minded. Many of the Disc's lesser AnthropomorphicPersonifications are likewise a bit inept and/or clueless.