Oh Gods!!

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In Pre-Crisis days, Krypton was monotheistic and Raoism was presented as very similar to Judaism or Christianity, though the original The Krypton Chronicles miniseries revealed that the name Rao had been used for their culture's sun god in their polytheistic past. The monotheistic prophet Jaf-Em preferred to give Rao the title "Rao, who kindled the sun" (to distinguish that Rao was not the sun, but rather its creator), a phrase which continued to appear in Kryptonian marriage ceremonies up to the present day. In The Wheel of Time series, the dominant religious belief is in the Creator and the Light, a never-seen force which is at war with the Dark One, leading to many familiar English idioms substituting "the Light" for God ("the Light bless you", "the Light preserve us", "thank the Light", "the Light willing", etc.). In The Soldier Son trilogy, which is set in a different world from the Realm of the Elderlings, Gernians swear "By the Good God" ... which sounds a lot like ordinary, real-world curses, but this is actually the name of the "current" deity (as opposed to the old god of balances and death). Jesus Taboo: Played with; when asked, God admits that Jesus was His son — but then also counts Moses, Mohammed, Buddha, and various other spiritual leaders as His children as well. Fridge Brilliance: God is played by George Burns — a secular Jewish man in a movie directed by another secular Jewish man. The Stormlight Archive: "Storms", "storming" and "Stormfather" are common curses, referencing the massive highstorms people have to live with (the Stormfather being the living embodiment of the Storm). This also leads to an exchange when Dalinar swears by the Stormfather while speaking to the Stormfather. References to both the Almighty, either referred to as such or occasionally as Honor, or the Heralds of the Almighty are also common, either as a group ("Heralds send that man some wisdom") or individually ("Kalak's breath").

When Vesper accidentally releases some nasty gods from their prison, it’s down to her and Aster to help save the world. Kizin, the Maya god of death, is intent on sacrificing every human – unless the cousins beat his team at Pok-a-Tok, the Maya game that’s a bit like football. But you can’t use your feet. Or your head or hands. Gulp. Can Vesper and Aster put aside their differences to stop Kizin’s destructive plans? The variety of flourishing new religious movements around the world is astonishing and largely unrecognized in the West. The groups that generally grab all the attention—Moonies, Scientologists, Hare Krishnas, Wiccans—amount to a tiny and not particularly significant proportion of what's out there. Here are just a few representatively diverse examples of new movements from around the world: The owls use the name of their god, Glaux, in typical English idioms ("Glaux willing", "Glaux bless", "Oh my Glaux", etc.) as well as some more hilarious variations like "Glaux-in-a-box!"

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Rhetorical Request Blunder: In Oh God! You Devil, Bobby Shelton, at the end of his rope following yet another boring, low-paying, dead-end gig, says aloud to himself, "I'd sell my soul to the Devil to make it in this business. Just for the chance." Unfortunately for him, those words didn't go unnoticed. In Fiona Patton's Tales of the Branion Realm series, many characters worship a fire god, and use expressions such as "scorch it," or "that blazing bastard." Digitesque: Everyone swears by the gods. Even Ada, who is aware that the gods are machines created by humans. The Chalion sword & theology series by Lois McMaster Bujold includes “Five gods!” as a general exclamation that covers all the gods. While any of the five gods may be invoked by name (Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, and Bastard), the most common curses are related to Bastard, his demons, and parts of His divine anatomy. The present rate of growth of the new Christian movements and their geographical range suggest that they will become a major social and political force in the coming century. The potential for misunderstanding and stereotyping is enormous—as it was in the twentieth century with a new religious movement that most people initially ignored. It was called fundamentalist Islam.

In one book it explains that this is an important function of gods: it takes a very dedicated atheist to shout "Random fluctuations in the space-time continuum!" or " Outmoded superstition on a crutch!" after hitting his thumb with a hammer. Dwarf gods especially have no other reason for existing, and the dwarves claim to have no religion. In the Star Wars Expanded Universe and Star Wars Legends, the Jedi use "Force" for the same reason. During Star Wars (Marvel 1977), Vader at one point refers to "all the gods of the Sith"! (The original Sith people were said to have worshiped the Dark Jedi as gods, so "all the gods of the Sith" may easily refer to the first Dark Lords.) THE RAËLIANS. A growing new international UFO-oriented movement based in Canada, with perhaps 55,000 members worldwide, primarily in Quebec, French-speaking Europe, and Japan, the group was founded in 1973 by Raël, a French race-car journalist formerly known as Claude Vorilhon. Raël claims that in December of 1973, in the dish of a French volcano called Puy-de-Lassolas, he was taken onto a flying saucer, where he met a four-foot humanoid extraterrestrial with olive-colored skin, almond-shaped eyes, and long dark hair. The extraterrestrial's first words, in fluent French, were "You regret not having brought your camera?" On six successive days Raël had conversations with the extraterrestrial, from whom he learned that the human race was the creation (by means of DNA manipulation) of beings known as the Elohim—a word that was mistranslated in the Bible as "God" and actually means "those who came from the sky." Past prophets such as Moses, the Buddha, Jesus, and Muhammad had been given their revelations and training by the Elohim, who would now like to get to know their creations on equal terms, and demystify "the old concept of God." To that end the Raëlians have raised the money to build "the first embassy to welcome people from space." (Originally Raël was told that the embassy should be near Jerusalem, but Israel has been less than cooperative, and a recent revelation has led Raël to investigate Hawaii as a possibility.) Raël has also recently attracted international attention by creating Clonaid, a company devoted to the goal of cloning a human being.

Compare Answers to the Name of God, when someone swears "My God!" (or the equivalent), only for another character to reply "Yes?" Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness takes a brief divergence to discuss a small cult started around an insane Seer called Meshe, which excuses various characters to spout "Meshe's milk!" or "By the tits of Meshe!" whenever surprised or confounded. Both of which remind us that Meshe, although referred to as "he", is really a hermaphrodite like everyone else on the planet (except Genly Ai, who comes from Earth). Dante Valentine is prone to swearing by Anubis (" Anubis et'her ka", meaning something like "Anubis preserve my soul" based on context) and Sekhmet (" Sekhmet sa'es"). Justified in that her psychopomp takes the form of Anubis.

This last idea is at the heart of much of Stark's work. It is a component of the major sociological model for which Stark is perhaps best known: the rational-choice theory of religion, which proposes that in an environment of religious freedom people choose to develop and maintain their religious beliefs in accordance with the laws of a "religious economy." This model of religious history and change, Stark feels, is what should replace the traditional model—which, he has written, is based on the erroneous and fundamentally secular idea of "progress through theological refinement." It's a controversial model (some find the science of economics only dimly enlightening even when applied to financial markets), but it has become a major force in recent theorizing about religion. Many of the presentations at the London conference used it as a starting point. Characters in A Song of Ice and Fire sometimes exclaim "Seven save us!" (Referring to the seven aspects of the Westerosi God.) Likewise, "Seven hells!" is a common curse. Oaths are usually sworn to or by "the old gods and the new" (the new gods being the Seven and the old being the animistic gods of the North) or "in sight of gods and men." Averted by the monotheistic followers of R'hllor, the Lord of Light, who will sometimes correct those who refer to "gods" in the plural. I want readers to understand that it’s perfectly normal to feel like you don’t fully fit in. But neither does anyone else. We all modulate our personalities to fit our surroundings, and that’s fine.”

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In Krypton No More, Superman uses exclamations such as "Great Galaxies!"; Kara exclaims "Great Krypton" during the battle on planet Xonn; and Kandorians also say "Thanks to the stars!" Grandpa God: Granted, he's a lot less majestic than the usual use of this trope. Tophet chides about His down-market golf outfit to Bobby, saying He's too humble for his own good, pointing out his own high-end suit. In the Diana Wynne Jones short story "Dragon Reserve, Home Eight" a character says "Great Tew!" Which is a village in Oxfordshire in real life, albeit probably not in the world where the story is set. Characters in Red Sonja swear by various deities such as Ishtar and Elrik. The titular character often swears by Mitra or Scathach. Truth Series: First Truth and its sequels have "Ashes!" used as a swearword, referring to cremation; characters will also sometimes say things like "By the eight puppies!" or "By the Navigator's Wolves," both of which seem to refer to a constellation very similar to the Big Dipper. Expressions like "Burn me to ashes" and "The Navigator's Wolves should hunt me/him/her" are also common.