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Comic Books
"I've never bought into the notion of Primal infallibility; I think that sometimes, God gets it wrong. He lets the best of us get sick and die while degenerates like you go on forever. But I think Primus is smiling on me today, Star Saber; he's letting me correct one of his mistakes."
— Cyclonus, The Transformers: More than Meets the Eye
Oracle: Just received word from Wonder Woman, Batman- - she's on her way.
Batman: Well you can tell her to turn around now, Oracle. I don't need her here. I don't want her.
Oracle: You tell her. I don't talk back to gods.
Batman: And I don't believe in them.
Batman: Well you can tell her to turn around now, Oracle. I don't need her here. I don't want her.
Oracle: You tell her. I don't talk back to gods.
Batman: And I don't believe in them.
— Wonder Woman (Vol. 1) #164
Fan Works
Bluestar snorted and opened her mouth to inform him that the wrath of her traitorous ancestors was nothing of her concern, then decided it would only be a waste of time. If Tallstar wanted to believe that StarClan had any concern for the Clans at all, that was his decision. She would teach her Clan not to follow the words of a few dead cats blindly, and they would be stronger for it.
"She is not my goddess."
— Kyril Sutherland, The Night Unfurls: Re-Imagined
Watson: So you have come here, heretic.
Kyril: Heretic? Your Chief God exists, so she exists. I hold no loyalty to her anyway.
Kyril: Heretic? Your Chief God exists, so she exists. I hold no loyalty to her anyway.
Film
"Think someone could spend half their life in a slam with a horse bit in their mouth and not believe? Think he could start out in some liquor store trash bin with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and not believe? Got it all wrong, holy man. I absolutely believe in God … And I absolutely hate the fucker."
— Richard B. Riddick, Pitch Black
Amos Hackshaw: You don't believe in magic?
Phil Lovecraft: I believe in it, just don't use it.
Phil Lovecraft: I believe in it, just don't use it.
Literature
"A god like that was not worth a prayer."
— Polly Perks, Monstrous Regiment
"Well, it's little I know—and less I'm wishful to know—of gods. But this I do know: I've seen naught at all, at all, to make me want to bow down and worship you. And, meaning no disrespect, I'd as soon have naught at all to do with you, if you take my meaning."
— Bahzell Bahnakson to Tomonak, God of Justice, Oath of Swords
"Wizards don't believe in gods in the same way that most people don't find it necessary to believe in, say, tables. They know they're there, they know they're there for a purpose, they'd probably agree that they have a place in a well-organized universe, but they wouldn't see the point of believing, of going around saying, ‘O great table, without whom we are as naught.' Anyway, either the gods are there whether you believe or not, or exist only as a function of the belief, so either way you might as well ignore the whole business and, as it were, eat off your knees."
"If there is any kind of supreme being, it is up to all of us to become his moral superior."
— Lord Vetinari, Unseen Academicals
"You believe in that stuff?" said Vimes.
"Believe? No," said the grag. "I just know it exists."
"Believe? No," said the grag. "I just know it exists."
— Thud!
"I know of nothing poorer under the sun than you, Gods! You barely nourish — by sacrificial offerings and prayerful exhalations — your Majesty, and would starve, were not children and beggars hopeful fools."
— Prometheus, by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
"Should've left when I figured out you were a godling! And you're worse somehow. You seemed so sad, I thought for a moment that you were more human. But you're just like the rest of them, screwing up mortal lives and thinking you're doing us a favor."
— Hymn, Inheritance Trilogy
Well, God, I guess you think you've got me now! But this is not the way to change me. It was a bad blow I got on my back - now I'm stooping. You're the Almighty, nothing happens without your will. You wanted to hurt my back, to make me suffer for the rest of my life. Why? I don't think I sinned in cutting down the oaks. I clear fields for farming, and people get their daily bread from those fields. Is that why you reward me? What did you do to my father in his days? He fought the stones for twenty-five years and then a stone made a cripple of him. That, too, you allowed to happen, so you rewarded him. You took Kristina from me, you tricked her to die. How can a person trust a God who acts that way? How can anyone ask me to trust in the Lord after this? You gave me a mind - I've used it to the best of my ability. But if my sense isn't good enough - is this my fault? Why wasn't I given enough sense? I want to tell you, God: I'll never praise you for what you did to Kristina, for what you've done to me. Never. For I do not accept the injustices that you allow to happen. I won't budge. I won't submit. I'll always fight against it. Me you cannot coerce. Never will I ask forgiveness. I know I'm a helpless creature before the Almighty. You can do with me what you wish. But never, never will I say that it is just. The oak hit me across the back, but it didn't change my mind. If the tree had fallen a foot to the right or to the left I would have lost my life. But it would have made no difference, it would not have changed me in the moment of death. You cannot do anything to change my mind. You've bent my body, God, but not my soul. You can kill me, you can rob me of my breath, but you cannot make me say you're just. You can never bend my soul. Never in eternity! Amen!
— A Settler's Last Evening Prayer, The Emigrants
But now that I know the gods are definitely real and definitely paying attention to me, I find that I'm not very fond of praying. It was a lot more appealing when I thought I would be safely ignored. These days...
The consequences of prayer could way too easily be worse than whatever situation I'm praying to get out of. I'll take my chances with functional atheism, thanks.
The consequences of prayer could way too easily be worse than whatever situation I'm praying to get out of. I'll take my chances with functional atheism, thanks.
— Rose Marshall, Angel of the Overpass
Live-Action TV
"You're welcome on my boat. God ain't."
— Captain Malcolm Reynolds to Shepherd Derrial Book, Firefly
"I accept that you exist. I don't have to accept what you are, but your physical existence, I give you that."
— The Doctor to the Beast, Doctor Who, "The Satan Pit"
Cersei: "Praying to the Gods to have mercy on us all." The Gods have no mercy; that's why they are Gods. My father told me that when he caught me praying.
Sansa: Your father doesn't believe in the Gods?
Cersei: He believes in them; he just doesn't like them very much.
Sansa: Your father doesn't believe in the Gods?
Cersei: He believes in them; he just doesn't like them very much.
Book: Captain, do you mind if I say grace?
Mal: Only if you say it out loud.
Mal: Only if you say it out loud.
— Firefly
George: God would never let me be successful; He'd kill me first. He'd never let me be happy.
Therapist: I thought you didn't believe in God?
George: I do for the bad things.
Therapist: I thought you didn't believe in God?
George: I do for the bad things.
— Seinfeld
Podcasts
Arthur: To imagine there are these people out there that control – or believe they understand – everything I’ve done, and will do. It’s...
John: Disheartening?
Arthur: Yes. Disheartening. And it makes me want to be contrarian. To spit in the eye of every fucking friend and family member who told me that God had a plan, when everything was taken from me.
John: God has a plan?
Arthur: Yes, it’s the... it’s just empty words that mean nothing. Said by a variety of equally mad zealots, pulling threads off the same bloodstained cloth and calling it their own.
John: I know you don’t believe in God, Arthur, but...
Arthur: But what?
John: Well. Everything you’ve seen. Me, even. The Dark World, it- none of that makes you reconsider? Question things?
Arthur: I don’t know. Maybe. But if it has, none of that comes to benefit those who speak on the behalf of a selfish God like the one so many of my kind follow. Or... or if they do, he’s just an insignificant child playing games.
John: Disheartening?
Arthur: Yes. Disheartening. And it makes me want to be contrarian. To spit in the eye of every fucking friend and family member who told me that God had a plan, when everything was taken from me.
John: God has a plan?
Arthur: Yes, it’s the... it’s just empty words that mean nothing. Said by a variety of equally mad zealots, pulling threads off the same bloodstained cloth and calling it their own.
John: I know you don’t believe in God, Arthur, but...
Arthur: But what?
John: Well. Everything you’ve seen. Me, even. The Dark World, it- none of that makes you reconsider? Question things?
Arthur: I don’t know. Maybe. But if it has, none of that comes to benefit those who speak on the behalf of a selfish God like the one so many of my kind follow. Or... or if they do, he’s just an insignificant child playing games.
— Malevolent, "The Roots"
Radio and Theatre
"From now, we are enemies... You and I. Because You choose for your instrument a boastful, lustful, smutty, infantile boy and give me for reward only to recognize the incarnation. Because You are unjust, unfair, unkind, I will block you, I swear it. I will hinder and harm your creature as far as I am able. I will ruin your incarnation."
— Antonio Salieri, Amadeus
When Ron the Mighty is stood in front of the Gate of Heaven, he begins straightaway to denounce it! He cries, "Heaven is for those too scared of nothingness! I will go no further than my mortal flesh will carry! This mirror is the sick bed of Heaven, Harry! The eternity of pansy lives!" Ronnie will have nothing to do with the mirror. He is only concerned with the flesh and the blood of the now.
This destroys Harry. Ron leaves him to contemplate the design of the cosmos versus the terminal beauty of being a wizard.
For forty-three days straight Harry sits in front of the Gate of Heaven, waiting for either God to appear, or for Ronnie to come back and apologize. But, to Harry's surprise, neither shows up. Only Near-Dead Dumbledore stumbles upon the vigil. Harry is considerably weakened, and is actually taken surprised by Dumbledore's presence.
Dumbledore starts in. "Don't you want some cocoa or soup, Harry? Come away from the light of Heaven's easy life. We need such a valiant, beautiful warrior as yourself here to live and to hack the serpents of evil in two, hell, into twos, into threes and fours! Your life will be the very envy of Heaven and its slobbery inhabitants! No, Harry. You were meant to stride with us, the living! To course with us and our blood! You are meant to end when your share of that blood turns brown upon the rocks of glory! You and I shall drink to-night, Harry. We shall drink to life's confines, to life's pearly end, which is the nothingness of death, not the perpetual pansiness of Heaven!"
Yes, honey, our farm burned down, hence we are here. But, you know what, kids? Sometimes things just happen! And sometimes God is a vicious, two-faced prick.
— Father, The Trail to Oregon!
My God, I am sick
I've been used
And you knew all the time
God! I'll never ever know
Why you chose me for your crime
Your foul, bloody crime!
You have murdered me!
You have murdered me!
Murdered me, murdered me, murdered me
Murdered me, murdered me, murdered me...
I've been used
And you knew all the time
God! I'll never ever know
Why you chose me for your crime
Your foul, bloody crime!
You have murdered me!
You have murdered me!
Murdered me, murdered me, murdered me
Murdered me, murdered me, murdered me...
— Jesus Christ Superstar, "Judas' Death"
Tabletop Games
"I do not reject the gods. I reject their authority, their pettiness, and their arrogance."
"I say give the Gods exactly what they require in order for one to live a life free from divine interference and leave it at that!"
— A wealthy young noble, Warhammer Fantasy Roleplay, Realms of Sorcery
Video Games
"Real or not, that doesn't mean I have to worship him. I don't fall to my knees out of pure boredom like some people."
— Padrig "Paddy" Dower, Kingdoms of Amalur: Reckoning
"Do you not see that all things of worth in this world are the works of mortals? The Gods merely feed upon our achievements like carrion birds. All they have is this promise of a so-called afterlife. Once I rid the world of death, those charlatans won't have anything to use against us."
Webcomics
"You do remember logic, don't you? It's the part of your brain that weeps every time you kneel down and pray to a glorified petting zoo."
— Girard, The Order of the Stick
Angel: Why did you never consider becoming a Cleric yourself? [...]
Roy: ...I've never really been that religious. I mean, I guess my mom raised me to worship the Northern Gods, but I always just figured as long as I don't actively offend any of them, they'd leave me alone. The idea of playing Fetching Boy for an ultrapowerful outsider who never seems to be able to get off his butt and do anything for himself seemed like a less-than-satisfying existence.
Roy: ...I've never really been that religious. I mean, I guess my mom raised me to worship the Northern Gods, but I always just figured as long as I don't actively offend any of them, they'd leave me alone. The idea of playing Fetching Boy for an ultrapowerful outsider who never seems to be able to get off his butt and do anything for himself seemed like a less-than-satisfying existence.
Remi: I don't believe in sin.
Arthur: You don't believe in God?
Remi: I don't need God, Arthur. There's a difference.
Arthur: You don't believe in God?
Remi: I don't need God, Arthur. There's a difference.
Statue of Ganesh: In the seven hundred years that I have been a temple statue, I have never heard someone utter the words "a god" in the same tone that one might describe, oh, foot fungus.
Digger: Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude, it's just that we find a lot of old gods underground. They're kind of a nuisance.
Digger: Sorry. I didn't mean to be rude, it's just that we find a lot of old gods underground. They're kind of a nuisance.
Web Original
A serpent in a garden gave us knowledge. The fruit won't be offered. Take it by force.
A trickster god gave us freedom. Overthrow him too.
A titan gave us fire. Give it back.
A trickster god gave us freedom. Overthrow him too.
A titan gave us fire. Give it back.
"There were little sections of my life where I prayed and I begged for anything. To all of them, to any of them. The only time they've ever spoken to me was the one who tried to fucking kill me less than a week ago. Hell, I had one fucking word that I spoke to a giant pile of earth that was more responsive and made me feel better and connected me to something bigger than anything in my fucking life. Just the ground itself did more. So yeah, you know what? I am all for faith. And I'm not going to pick a god. They can pick me. It'll be the first one that actually praises me, and then maybe I'll fucking answer. I'll wait. They can fucking beg. And I will listen, which is more than they ever fucking did."
— Ashton Greymoore, Critical Role
Western Animation
[Hawkgirl is poised over Icthultu's exposed brain.]
Icthultu: You will not do this thing, child of Thanagar. Icthultu still has faith in you.
Hawkgirl: So do I.
[Hawkgirl smashes his brain in with her big honkin' mace.]
Icthultu: You will not do this thing, child of Thanagar. Icthultu still has faith in you.
Hawkgirl: So do I.
[Hawkgirl smashes his brain in with her big honkin' mace.]
— Justice League, "The Terror Beyond"
Real Life
"Can you interfere arbitrarily with what I am doing? Yes—physically. No—mentally. Can a brick kill me? Yes. Can a brick get into my mind and tell me what to do? No. Can an omnipotent being do that? Yes. An omnipotent being, by definition, is a totalitarian dictator. Ah, but he won't use his power? Never mind. He has it."
— Ayn Rand in a letter
"It is folly for a man to pray to the gods for that which he has the power to obtain by himself."
— Epicurus
