Line #28 Literature/GodsDebris


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/gods_debris.png]]
2	->''Every generation of humans believed it had all the answers it needed, except for a few mysteries they assumed would be solved at any moment. And they all believed their ancestors were simplistic and deluded. What are the odds that you are the first generation of humans who will understand reality?''
3	-->-- The Avatar ([[WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender no, not that one]]) ([[VideoGame/{{Ultima}} that one either]]) ([[WesternAnimation/ObanStarRacers or that one]]) ([[Film/{{Avatar}} nor that one]]) ([[TabletopGame/{{Warhammer 40000}} And neither this one]])
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5	Scott Adams, creator of ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}}, presents a "thought experiment". A delivery man brings a package to a crazy old guy. They talk. Then the delivery man becomes an identical crazy old guy. Your mission, according to the introduction, is to find the flaw(s) in the crazy guy's arguments.
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7	Has a sequel, ''Literature/TheReligionWar'', which switches things up by having an actual plot.
8
9	!!Contains examples of:
10	* AuthorFilibuster: The entire book consists of two men talking. {{Inverted}} since the author says he doesn't believe what's being said.
11	* CausedTheBigBang: The event known as the Big Bang was actually {{God}} killing Himself to experience the only thing He hasn't yet known--His own death. The entire post-BB universe is actually the eponymous debris of God, i.e. matter and probability.
12	* ContemplateOurNavels: Practically the entire narrative.
13	* DistantFinale: The epilogue takes place after the sequel, ''Literature/TheReligionWar''.
14	* DumbIsGood: Played straight and subverted.
15	-->"I noticed your level is highest. That's obviously the good one. You have to feel glad you're not on one of the other levels."\
16	"No. Happiness comes more easily at the other levels. Awareness has its price. An Avatar can find happiness only in serving."
17	* HaveYouSeenMyGod: The ultimate test of God's omnipotence and omniscience is [[spoiler:to kill himself and create a world where he doesn't exist. The big bang was god's death, and all particles in the universe and the laws of probability are [[TitleDrop God's debris]].]] The formal name for such a theory is UsefulNotes/{{Pandeism}}.
18	* HealingFactor: Gravity is [[spoiler:God regenerating]].
19	* HeWhoFightsMonsters: The explanation the old man gives for why skeptics are exactly as dogmatic as everyone else.
20	* HiveMind: The Internet is [[spoiler:God's mind re-forming]].
21	* MemeticMutation: How the Avatar's "powers" work: "Ideas are the only things that can change the world. The rest is details."[[invoked]]
22	* MindScrew: Luckily, the Avatar [[MindScrewdriver talks us through most of it.]]
23	* MinimalistCast: There is only the Avatar and the narrator.
24	* MoodWhiplash: Hope you didn't see "Scott Adams" and think it would be another ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} book.
25	* NoNameGiven: The delivery man. The other character says Avatar is his name as well as title, so if he has had another name, it's not revealed.
26	* NothingLeftToDoButDie : God blows itself up because it has already figured out everything it can figure without ending its own existence.
27	* PiecesOfGod: Guess what our universe is made from.
28	* SomeoneHasToDoIt: [[spoiler:"There is only one Avatar at a time."]]
29	* SpiritualSuccessor: The Avatar's philosophy resembles [[MindScrew a theory presented]] in the final chapters of ''[[ComicStrip/{{Dilbert}} The Dilbert Future]]'' and its UpdatedRerelease. Oddly, there the philosophy is presented as a TakeThat to the misapplication of OccamsRazor, possibly.
30	* SubliminalAdvertising:
31	** The book supposedly contains hypnotic messages.
32	** The arguments THEMSELVES use the principles of hypnosis to make them seem reasonable. It's the source of half of the MindScrew.
33	* TitleDrop: See the HaveYouSeenMyGod reference.
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Context Literature / GodsDebris