History Main / ReasoningWithGod

--> '''But Moses sought the favor of the Lord his God. “Lord,” he said, “why should your anger burn against your people, whom you brought out of Egypt with great power and a mighty hand? Why should the Egyptians say, ‘It was with evil intent that he brought them out, to kill them in the mountains and to wipe them off the face of the earth’? Turn from your fierce anger; relent and do not bring disaster on your people. Remember your servants Abraham, Isaac and Israel, to whom you swore by your own self: ‘I will make your descendants as numerous as the stars in the sky'" '''

* In the pages of ''the Sandman'', as indeed in the original story, Orpheus manages to convince Hades and Persephone - the god and goddess of the land of the dead - to allow his lost love Eurydike to follow him back to the land of the living through the beauty of his music. It still doesn't end well.

* In ''Anime/MagicKnightRayearth'', Fuu and Umi plead with Mokona to let them help Hikaru. They then manage to somehow pass the gate to the other world (earth), so it's implied he let them

* Multiple examples in TheBible (particularly in the Old Testament--see JewsLoveToArgue):

* In the end of ''ComicBook/KingdomCome'', Reverend [=McCay=] talks down a rampaging {{Superman}} by appealing to his human side ("Man", as opposed to "Super").

* There was an issue in ''SpiderMan'' where Spidey dies along with a little girl he was trying to save. After a brief fight with {{Thanos}}, he talks to [[TheGrimReaper Death]] herself, convincing her to allow a little girl to come back to life. In honor of his bravery, Spider-Man comes back as well.

* Multiple examples in TheBible:

* ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'': Ben Sisko gets the Prophets to intervene during the climax of the episode "Sacrifice of Angels"; they wipe out an entire Dominion fleet entering the wormhole.

* In VernorVinge's ''Literature/AFireUponTheDeep'', individuals and civilizations sometimes try to petition one of the Powers for intervention, and sometimes it works.

* In "The Last Trump" by IsaacAsimov, God announces that it's time for the Judgement Day, but a junior angel notices a loophole in the declaration, plucks up his courage, and successfully argues for the whole thing to be postponed. (God's reaction to the argument turns out to be, more or less, "Oh good, I was hoping somebody would bring that up".)

* Multiple examples in TheBible, such as when Abraham persuaded God to spare Sodom if ten righteous men were found in the city (they weren't).

* In VernorVinge's ''[[Literature/ZonesOfThought A Fire Upon the Deep]]'', individuals and civilizations sometimes try to petition one of the Powers for intervention, and sometimes it works.

* In Vernor Vinge's ''Fire Upon the Deep'', individualizations and civilizations sometimes try to petition one of the Powers for intervention, and sometimes it works.

* Ben Sisko gets the Prophets to intervene during the climax of the episode' ''Sacrifice of Angels'' from ''StarTrekDeepSpaceNine'', they wipe out an entire Dominion fleet entering the wormhole.

* On ''[[Seies/MysteryScienceTheatre3000 MST3K]]'', they spoof this trope while watching Jack Frost, specifically the scene where the girl has to finish her sock before the sun rises, and the girl asks the sun to wait.

Compare DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu, where mortals manage to defeat something infinitely more powerful. This trope is about mortal wits (or emotions) finding the right words to convince a superhuman intelligence. Compare/contrast DealWithTheDevil. Also not to be confused with PalsWithJesus, where the character has stable working relationship with higher powers.

* In the backstory for the ''{{Belgariad}}'', Gorim got UL to accept the Ulgos as His chosen people with a combination of nagging and guilt-tripping.

* ''[[Film/BillAndTed BillAndTedsBogusJourney]]'' has them going to heaven to ask God for help, rather than to intervene and act himself, directly.

* In ''[[Series/{{Babylon5}} BabylonFive]]'', Captain Sheridan manages to convince the Vorlons, an ancient powerful race so far beyond the younger races as to be nearly gods in comparison, to directly intervene on behalf on the younger races against the BigBad race called the Shadows. The Shadows are as powerful as the Vorlons and are their chief rival, however previously, the Vorlons would only use younger races as proxies against them rather than involving themselves directly in the fight.

* In the end of ''ScrappedPrincess'', Pacifica Casull convinces [[spoiler:Lord Mauser to give humanity another shot at the aliens]].
* In ''MagicKnightRayearth'', Fuu and Umi plead with Mokona to let them help Hikaru. They then manage to somehow pass the gate to the other world (earth), so it's implied he let them

* There was an issue in ''SpiderMan'' where Spidey dies along with a little girl he was trying to save. After a brief fight with {{Thanos}}, he talks to Death herself, convincing her to allow a little girl to come back to life. In honor of his bravery, Spider-Man comes back as well.

* ''BillAndTedsBogusJourney'' has them going to heaven to ask God for help, rather than to intervene and act himself, directly.

* ''Series/{{Supernatural}}'': Dean asks {{Death}} to restore Sam's soul. Death has a price: Dean has to be Death for one day. Dean fails, but Death's a nice guy and does it anyway.
* On ''MST3K'', they spoof this trope while watching Jack Frost, specifically the scene where the girl has to finish her sock before the sun rises, and the girl asks the sun to wait.
* In ''BabylonFive'', Captain Sheridan manages to convince the Vorlons, an ancient powerful race so far beyond the younger races as to be nearly gods in comparison, to directly intervene on behalf on the younger races against the BigBad race called the Shadows. The Shadows are as powerful as the Vorlons and are their chief rival, however previously, the Vorlons would only use younger races as proxies against them rather than involving themselves directly in the fight.