History Main / GodIsInept

* ''Anime/DragonBallSuper'' has it as a major plot point that the local gods of Universe 7 and others are inept at managing the universe, to the point where [[TopGod Zen'o, their boss]] actively disapproves of the low population, quality, and degree of advancement of their mortals, and wants to intervene. [[spoiler:By tossing out the shoddy workmanship that is the universe they've turned out to make more room for higher-quality universes staffed by actual competent deities]].

-->-- '''Creator/WoodyAllen'''

* The argument from poor design argues against an omnipotent God based on the basis of nature's various perceived flaws. A possibility is that God isn't all-powerful but incompetent though.

* There are jokes about God being an inept engineer for [[UnusualEuphemism putting a sewage line through a recreational area]] and giving men nipples.

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The first attempt to create a universe was so spoiled by the arguments of the gods that they ended up creating [[ContinuitySnarl the Snarl]], which killed the Greco-Roman pantheon before they managed to lock it down. The lock? The ''second'' attempt at the universe. Said universe is an AnachronismStew because, to avoid creating another Snarl, the gods decided to take turns unilaterally adding design elements. The idea is based off Rich Burlew's complaints about ''D&D'' cosmology. [[spoiler: And as it turns out, this isn't the ''second'' attempt to create the universe and contain the Snarl, it's not even the hundredth. The Snarl keeps breaking out and destroying the universe time after time because the gods can't effectively work out a way to keep it from doing so]].

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' points out straight away how inept God is, noting that the Guide is more controversial than such tomes as "Where God Went Wrong," "Some More Of God's Greatest Mistakes," and "Who Is This God Person Anyway?" (all written by Oolon Colluphid, who went on to write "Well, That About Wraps It Up For God" after He disappears upon finding out that the Babel Fish's existence has canceled Him out).

** The director of the commercial originally claimed that the bearded deity wasn't "God", but some clumsy generic deity. This probably didn't appease the audience offended by the portrayal, because in later airings the character's throne is labeled "Zeus".

* ''Manga/{{Doraemon}}'': [[TheMovie The feature film]] has a plot where Nobita plays God, as in there is a gadget that creates world starting from the big bang, which is intended for research. It turns out that Nobita is not very good in his God-job, and the human-equivalent of his cosmos live distressing life. [[spoiler:Just as things are about to go out out of hands, it's revealed that ''Nobita's'' own cosmos is [[RecursiveReality also a research project]] by a God-like entity, and the entity offer Nobita a win-win solution for everyone]]. [[CosmicHorrorStory The implications make for a sleepless night, or seven]].
* ''Anime/DragonballSuper'' has it as a major plot point that the local gods are inept at managing the universe, to the point where [[TopGod their boss]] actively disapproves of the low population, quality, and degree of advancement of their mortals, and wants to intervene. [[spoiler: By tossing out the shoddy workmanship that is the universe they've turned out to make more room for higher-quality universes staffed by actual competent deities.]]

* One Polish indie comic book has a story about race of omnipotent beings. One of them is teenage JerkassGod Yahwe, who creates his own world with free-willed creatures based on his image to impress his friends and teachers. Upon seeing his creation, other Gods are horrified with [[HumansAreBastards all terrible things humans do to each other]] and call Yahwe incompetent and lazy, ordering him to clean up his own mess by bringing up [[TheEndofTheWorldAsWeKnowIt Armageddon]].
* Happens, sort of, in ''ComicBook/ChaosWar''. [[spoiler:Hercules sacrifices his omnipotence to recreate the Universe, destroyed by Chaos King. [[StatusQuoIsGod Everything goes back to exactly how it was before]], including all villains and viarous monsters. Hercules claims that he was [[OmniscientMoralityLicense "Guided by wisdom beyond human understanding"]] but considering he accidentially brought Ares's son Knykos back to life, it's rather clearly this trope]].

** Second, God arranges things so that [[spoiler:a FallenAngel walking though a doorway can end all existence]].

* The film ''Film/TimeBandits'' deals heavily with the concept that The Supreme Being (God) made errors in his designs, both with individual items (which are listed occasionally) and with the universe in general. God was also assisted in his creation (which, for some reason, he was "forced" to complete in only seven days) by some greedy, inept dwarves rather than a council of angels. The dwarves then steal God's map that shows where all of the "holes" are in the fabric of the universe, and instead of using the map to ''fix'' the holes, decide to get rich by stealing stuff. Evil (Arthur G. Evil) rants about how God wasted his time creating garbage like all those species of slugs, instead of starting with lasers and other high tech. God (in the film) is also incapable of answering those questions people expect God to be able to answer, such as, "why does there have to be evil?" (His answer: "... I think it has something to do with free will?"[[note]]Which is, in a nutshell, the answer given by some of the greatest theologians and philosophers in history: without free will, there can be no such thing as morality, but free will also necessitates the ability to choose to do evil (however, this still does not explain natural evils such as cancer, etc. ). Many fans of ''Time Bandits'' argue that this movie actually subverts this trope: God is made to look absent-minded and inept, but one could certainly argue that [[ObfuscatingStupidity this is all a ruse]], and that everything that happens in the movie proceeds according to His [[JustAsPlanned design]]. After all, by leaving holes in spacetime at the Creation, and then giving the map of those holes to the bandits, then provoking them into running away, and then chasing them into the protagonist's bedroom, He arranges the destruction of [[BigBad Evil]].[[/note]]

-->'''Daryl:''' Do you think God knew what He was doing when He created woman? Huh? No shit. I really wanna know. Or do you think it was another one of His minor mistakes like tidal waves, earthquakes, FLOODS? You think women are like that? S'matter? You don't think God makes mistakes? Of course He does. We ALL make mistakes. Of course, when WE make mistakes they call it evil. When GOD makes mistakes, they call it "nature". So whaddya think? Women... a mistake, or did he do it to us ON PURPOSE?

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The first attempt to create a universe was so spoiled by the arguments of the gods that they ended up creating [[ContinuitySnarl the Snarl]], which killed the Greco-Roman pantheon before they managed to lock it down. The lock? The ''second'' attempt at the universe. Said universe is an AnachronismStew because, to avoid creating another Snarl, the gods decided to take turns unilaterally adding design elements. The idea is based off Rich Burlew's whinings about ''D&D'' cosmology.

* ''VideoGame/{{Rift}}'': One of the driving reasons for the Defiant to exist as a faction is a strongly held belief in this very concept as the gods have shown their capability to fix the problems at hand, but have chosen ineffectual or outright lazy methods of achieving this, all of which can be described as slapping a bandaid on a crack in the dam before sending ants to fix the problem for you.

* In ''Webcomic/ChampionsOfFaraus'' some of the deities are this.On the first page,we get treated to an example of a fire God lighting his followers weapon on fire,while a Vegetive earth Godess makes her followers shield smell like lavender.

* A commercial begins with the opening scene of Film/Armageddon where dozens of meteors are tearing through New York City. The camera pans up the skyline, through the clouds, up into heaven - and it turns out God was trying to squirt Tabasco sauce onto a hot dog and missing his plate.

God may later try to claim "IMeantToDoThat!", explaining the whole thing away as a GambitRoulette justified by their OmniscientMoralityLicense, and that ObfuscatingStupidity is all part of their master plan... but unless the ending explodes in a hail of [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's gunfire]], especially if accompanied by a prearranged divine AssPull of divine might, that explanation just never seems very convincing. As a rule of thumb, if a person can, in retrospect, work out how the plan was set up in advance, and some previously arranged coincidences unravel into karmically appropriate boons before the end, it was probably a divine {{plan}}. Otherwise, it's probably just bumbling.

* "Better Off Dead" by BadReligion is told from the perspective of God, and basically consists of him apologizing for screwing up the world so bad.

* A commercial begins with the opening scene of Film/Armageddon where dozens of meteors are tearing through New York City. The camera pans up the skyline, through the clouds, up into heaven - and it turns out God was trying to squirt mustard onto a hot dog and missing his plate.

[[folder:Anime and Manga]]

[[folder:Comics]]

[[folder:Fan Fiction]]
* Terminus, Hylia's twin sister/Terminian counterpart in the ''Franchise/TheLegendOfZelda'' fic ''[[FanFic/BoundDestiniesTrilogy Blood and Spirit]]''. While she means well, she's prone to making severe mistakes that have long-term consequences. For example, when Link is first [[TheCorruption corrupted by Majora]] Terminus makes him swear to keep it a secret from Zelda, not wanting to put Zelda through the same pain she went through when Majora corrupted her own hero; Majora subsequently forces Link to attack Zelda and nearly kill her, something that Terminus had [[IdiotBall stupidly failed to consider]]. When Zelda confronts her about it later, Terminus even acknowledges that it ''should'' have occurred to her, but it didn't.

[[folder:Film]]

* The film ''Film/TimeBandits'' deals heavily with the concept that The Supreme Being (God) made errors in his designs, both with individual items (which are listed occasionally) and with the universe in general.
** God was also assisted in his creation (which, for some reason, he was "forced" to complete in only seven days) by some greedy, inept dwarves rather than a council of angels. The dwarves then steal God's map that shows where all of the "holes" are in the fabric of the universe, and instead of using the map to ''fix'' the holes, decide to get rich by stealing stuff.
** Evil (Arthur G. Evil) rants about how God wasted his time creating garbage like all those species of slugs, instead of starting with lasers and other high tech.
** God (in the film) is also incapable of answering those questions people expect God to be able to answer, such as, "why does there have to be evil?" (His answer: "... I think it has something to do with free will?"[[note]]Which is, in a nutshell, the answer given by some of the greatest theologians and philosophers in history: without free will, there can be no such thing as morality, but free will also necessitates the ability to choose to do evil (however, this still does not explain natural evils such as cancer, etc. ). Many fans of ''TimeBandits'' argue that this movie actually subverts this trope: God is made to look absent-minded and inept, but one could certainly argue that [[ObfuscatingStupidity this is all a ruse]], and that everything that happens in the movie proceeds according to His [[JustAsPlanned design]]. After all, by leaving holes in spacetime at the Creation, and then giving the map of those holes to the bandits, then provoking them into running away, and then chasing them into the protagonist's bedroom, He arranges the destruction of [[BigBad Evil]].[[/note]]

-->Daryl: Do you think God knew what He was doing when He created woman? Huh? No shit. I really wanna know. Or do you think it was another one of His minor mistakes like tidal waves, earthquakes, FLOODS? You think women are like that? S'matter? You don't think God makes mistakes? Of course He does. We ALL make mistakes. Of course, when WE make mistakes they call it evil. When GOD makes mistakes, they call it "nature". So whaddya think? Women... a mistake, or did he do it to us ON PURPOSE?

[[folder: Live Action TV ]]

---> '''Picard:''' The universe is ''not'' so badly designed.

[[folder:Mythology and Religion]]

* Originally in UsefulNotes/{{Gnosticism}} (that's where the word "Demiurge" came from: Dēmiourgos -- "public worker"). Many doctrines of it say something like "our world is made by someone pretty low in the Divine Ranks, not very skilled at this" -- explaining any problems of the world we know as consequences of a work botched from the start.\\
\\

* {{Voudoun}}: Bondye, the supreme creator god, is simply so far removed from the world that he either can't hear us, or just can't help us. Instead, people look to the Loa, other powerful beings, for help.
* In the Finnish mythology described in ''TheKalevala'' the creation of the world is described as an accident, the creator goddess Ilmatar accidentally letting a nestful of eggs fall from her knee (long story), cracking them in the process. The pieces of eggs then formed the the lands and skies. This is humorously commented in Petri Hiltunen's newspaper comic ''Väinämöisen paluu'' (''Väinämöinen Returns'') -- for the sake of context, Väinämöinen is Ilmatar's son:

[[folder:Newspaper Comics]]
* {{God}} in ''ComicStrip/TheFarSide''. One strip (which drew complaints) showed God as a child trying to make a chicken, with the experiment blowing up in his face. Another strip had God taking the Earth out of the oven realizing too late that it was only [[CrapsackWorld half-baked.]] Yet another one shows the rise of humanity as a total accident on God's part: he dropped a jar of humans on Earth and went [[OhCrap "Uh oh"]]. Another one portrayed as more of a JerkassGod instead; having finished cooking up Earth, he added a liberal seasoning of "Jerks" just to make it interesting.
[[/folder]]

[[folder: Tabletop RPG ]]
* ''TabletopGame/{{World Tree RPG}}'': The Khytsoyis. "I lost track of time, so I'm going to grab up a violent monster I was designing, one that was actually designed to work as a duo with another monster in fact, and make it my Designated Player Character Race!" One of the other gods in the setting took time out to help said god create another PC race which was more appropriate, but they didn't undo the original issue.
* ''TabletopGame/{{GURPS}} Cabal''. Before the Creation, God made a "first draft" of the universe as a test. He then destroyed it and remade it as the universe we know today. The [[EldritchAbomination Qlippoth]] are the remaining fragments of the 1st Creation. Their intent is to remake the universe over in their diseased, broken, toxic image.
** On the other hand, the Creator was actually thoughtful enough to clean up after himself-while he couldn't destroy the Qlippoth, he created a [[SealedEvilInACan "prison realm"]], the Abyss, to seal them and other Bad Things in. What's more, it's also a barrier between his realm and the rest of the [[LayeredWorld Four Worlds]], thus preventing all but the most wise and powerful from managing to AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence.

[[folder: Video Games]]

* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Etro]] certainly meant well. She loved humanity, the one and only thing she had ever been able to create, ([[DrivenToSuicide by tearing her own body apart]]), gave them all their souls and ruled as a [[DontFearTheReaper benevolent]] {{Shinigami}} styled goddess over Valhalla, the realm of the dead... However, she was also seemingly unable to realize the limits of her own abilities, appreciate the risks she was taking or see the consequences of her actions. Eventually this leads to her accidentally breaking reality and when she [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong tries to fix it again]], [[DeconstructedTrope the effort ultimately kills her]]. According to WordOfGod, Etro was a quite "foolish" goddess, but it's unclear if that meant she was intellectually impaired or just didn't have much in the way of common sense.

[[folder:Webcomics]]

* ''Webcomic/TheOrderOfTheStick'': The first attempt to create a universe was so spoiled by the arguments of the gods that they ended up creating [[ContinuitySnarl the Snarl]], which killed the Greco-Roman pantheon before they managed to lock it down. The lock? The ''second'' attempt at the universe. Said universe is an AnachronismStew because, to avoid creating another Snarl, the gods decided to take turns unilaterally adding design elements. The idea is based off Rich Burlew's whinings about D&D cosmology.
-->'''South God:''' OK, my turn? Ninjas.\\
'''North God:''' What? Hey, we all agreed on this medieval knights-and-wizards theme!\\
'''South God:''' So? It's my turn, my choice, I say: NINJA!\\
'''North God:''' …Fine.

[[folder: Web Original ]]

* In ''WebAnimation/IfTheEmperorHadATextToSpeechDevice'' when Decius tries to convince the other Ecclesiarchs that the Emperor of Mankind isn't a god he eventually resorts to insulting all the other gods and concluding that calling the Emperor a god is an insult to his glory.
-->''...[[https://youtu.be/Pq-6aj9sNvo?t=1m50s Nurgle: a supernatural garbage bag! Khorne: a paraplegic sociopath! Tzeentch: an indecisive mollusk! Slaanesh: never went to rehab]]!...''

[[folder: Other]]
* The philosopher David Hume, in his ''Dialogues Concerning Natural Religion'', wrote: "The world is perhaps the rudimentary sketch of a childish god, who left it half done, ashamed by his deficient work; it is created by a subordinate god, at whom the superior gods laugh; it is the confused production of a decrepit and retiring divinity, who has already died."\\
\\
He was not proposing the hypothesis seriously, but using it as a parody of theological arguments that tried to prove the perfection of God from the perfection of the natural world. However, some philosophers took this theory seriously.

* In ''Franchise/TheElderScrolls'' series, this is the opinion of most of the [[OurElvesAreBetter races of Mer (Elves)]], especially the Altmer, toward Lorkhan. Lorkhan is one of the et'Ada ("original spirits") who tricked/convinced some of the other et'Ada (who would become known as the [[OurGodsAreDifferent Aedra]]) into sacrificing large portions of their power to create Mundus, the mortal plane. The races of Mer generally see this as an act of malevolence which robbed the pre-creation spirits of their divinity and forced them to experience mortal loss and suffering. The Altmer think of him as a "limit", and by "tricking" the Aedra into sacrificing large portions of their power to create Mundus, he imposed a limit upon them as well.

%% Image removed per Image Pickin' thread: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/posts.php?discussion=1479658198045485800
%% Please start a new thread if you'd like to suggest a new image.

** God (in the film) is also incapable of answering those questions people expect God to be able to answer, such as, "why does there have to be evil?" (His answer: "... I think it has something to do with free will?"[[note]]Which is, in a nutshell, the answer given by some of the greatest theologians and philosophers in history: without free will, there can be no such thing as morality, but free will also necessitates the ability to choose to do evil (however, this still does not explain natural evils such as cancer, etc.). Many fans of ''TimeBandits'' argue that this movie actually subverts this trope: God is made to look absent-minded and inept, but one could certainly argue that [[ObfuscatingStupidity this is all a ruse]], and that everything that happens in the movie proceeds according to His [[JustAsPlanned design]]. After all, by leaving holes in spacetime at the Creation, and then giving the map of those holes to the bandits, then provoking them into running away, and then chasing them into the protagonist's bedroom, He arranges the destruction of [[BigBad Evil]].[[/note]]

* ''{{Rift}}'': One of the driving reasons for the Defiant to exist as a faction is a strongly held belief in this very concept as the gods have shown their capability to fix the problems at hand, but have chosen ineffectual or outright lazy methods of achieving this, all of which can be described as slapping a bandaid on a crack in the dam before sending ants to fix the problem for you.

* ''{{Rift}}'': One of the driving reasons for the Defiant to exist as a faction is a strongly held belief in this very concept as the gods have shown their capability to fix the problems at hand, but have chosen ineffectual or outright lazy methods of achieving this, all of which can be described as slapping a bandaid on a crack in the damn before sending ants to fix the problem for you.
* [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXIII Etro]] certainly meant well. She loved humanity, the one and only thing she had ever been able to create, ([[DrivenToSuicide by tearing her own body apart]],) gave them all their souls and ruled as a [[DontFearTheReaper benevolent]] {{Shinigami}} styled goddess over Valhalla, the realm of the dead... However, she was also seemingly unable to realize the limits of her own abilities, appreciate the risks she was taking or see the consequences of her actions. Eventually this leads to her accidentally breaking reality and when she [[SetRightWhatOnceWentWrong tries to fix it again]] [[DeconstructedTrope the effort ultimately kills her]]. According to WordOfGod, Etro was a quite "foolish" goddess, but it's unclear if that meant she was intellectually impaired or just didn't have much in the way of common sense.

May result in a CrapsackWorld, CrapsaccharineWorld, {{Gotterdammerung}}, be the cause of the problem that the quest is about, or merely be a peculiar background detail. Not the same as TheGodsMustBeLazy; the design errors may be causing the gods extra work.

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' points out straight away how inept God is, notingthat the Guide is more controversial than such tomes as "Where God Went Wrong," "Some More Of God's Greatest Mistakes," and "Who Is This God Person Anyway?" (all written by Oolon Colluphid, who went on to write "Well, That About Wraps It Up For God" after He disappears upon finding out that the Babel Fish's existence has canceled Him out).

* ''Radio/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy'' points out straight away how inept God is, pointing out that the Guide is more controversial than such tomes as "Where God Went Wrong," "Some More Of God's Greatest Mistakes," and "Who Is This God Person Anyway?" (all written by Oolon Colluphid, who went on to write "Well, That About Wraps It Up For God" after He disappears upon finding out that the Babel Fish's existence has canceled Him out).