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There Is a God!

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"His death is the first solid piece of evidence I have seen to prove the existence of God."
US Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter, on the death of Chief Justice Fred Vinsonnote 

A phrase said when something happens that a character feels has happened by a divine hand, hence this is possible proof of the existence of god(s).

The actual occurrence can be a major thing, like ending a war, but just as often it's a smaller thing, especially when this is Played for Laughs.

The three basic forms are:

  1. Used literally. Yes, there really is a God, or I have gained/restored faith in God.
  2. Used semi-seriously. Well, there might be a God after all. Or at least the world doesn't totally suck.
  3. Used humorously.

The direct opposite is Evil Stole My Faith. Compare Turn to Religion, which may overlap with this if the declaration is followed up with genuine religiosity.


Examples:

    open/close all folders 

     Anime & Manga 
  • Used semi-seriously in Gundam X episode 1. Garrod finds an abandoned Gundam, but when he tries to use it to fight off some pursuers, he finds it doesn't have a control stick. He pulls out a disconnected control stick he found earlier and mutters "If this works, I'll believe in God!" It does, and he immediately turns to his companion and says "Tiffa, I believe in God!"
  • Played for Laughs in Kaguya-sama: Love Is War spin-off series We Want to Talk About Kaguya when Karen catches a sight of Kaguya and Shirogane riding on a bike together, and interprets it as a sign from the heavens that her ship is canon.
    Karen: God is real. Only he could have blessed me with that holy image...

     Comic Books 
  • Invasion!: Maxwell Lord quips that there may be a God after all after he hears that the Daxamites have chosen to turn against the other alien races invading Earth after learning exposure to Earth's sunlight gives them powers.
  • The Punisher: In The Punisher MAX arc "Bullseye", Frank and Bullseye fight each other, eventually coming down to Frank armed with just a knife and grappling Bullseye. They fall into a construction area, and when Bullseye notices just how many new weapons are available to them, he gives the phrase.
  • Superman: During the aftermath of The Death of Superman, Lex Luthor quips that he may believe in a benevolent God after all in light of his enemy Superman dying and Project Cadmus seemingly failing to use Superman's genetic code to create a clone to replace him.
  • Transmetropolitan: Said by Spider Jerusalem when a party goer tosses a grenade necklace over his head while he was feeling down.
  • War of the Gods: Lobo quips that there must be a God after all when Captain Marvel appears before him right when he's itching for a fight.

    Comic Strips 
  • The title panel of the January 15, 1989 strip of Garfield has Jon read from a newspaper and tell Garfield that doctors now say that diets don't work. Garfield responds by getting on his knees and looking upward with a smile while thinking "Oh, thank you, thank you, thank you, thank you", implying that he prayed to God that dieting would be discredited.

    Fan Works 
  • The Secret Return of Alex Mack: Alex assures Shar that she believes there's a higher power, because she's witnessed hell dimensions and met people who have been to heaven.
    Alex: I’ve fought a hellgoddess and met an Earth goddess. After all that, I think I pretty much have to believe there’s a Higher Power out there.

     Jokes 
  • An atheist and a priest are out hiking when they run into an angry sasquatch. Suddenly, a freak bolt of lightning strikes a nearby tree, scaring the beast away. The atheist cheers "It's a miracle!", and the priest replies dryly "And here I thought you didn't believe in God." The atheist replies "Give me a break! Until a minute ago, I didn't believe in Bigfoot either."

     Film 
  • In High Spirits, the lord of a castle fails to make it a tourist attraction. He's so depressed he's thinking of hanging himself, but a storm means the guests have to stay, so he says this.
  • In Deconstructing Harry, Woody Allen's character, an atheist, uses this in reference to Bobby Thomson's game-winning home run in the 1951 National League playoffs. "When he hit that home run it was the only hint I had that there may be a God."
  • As the diabetic black guard is dying on the plane in Con Air, he tells Nicholas Cage's character that sometimes he wonders if there's a God. Cage's character tells him he'll show him there is one, and then he starts kicking Con butt.
  • Used by John Ritter in the movie Skin Deep. After a number of horrible catastrophes befall him, he staggers into the beach entrance of his friend's bungalow, and announces, "There is a God, and he's a gag writer!" just as a huge ocean wave comes pouring in the open door, flooding the room.
  • Alex says it in Snow Cake when Maggie offers him tea.
  • At the end of Animal House, when one of the co-eds dressed in bunny ears and a leotard fly into the room of a young teen boy (reading through some Playboys), the boy simply shouts out, "Thank you, God!"
  • In The Three Musketeers (1993), Aramis says "See? There is a God," after The Reveal that his cross stopped the Cardinal's bullet and saved his life.
  • In Wayne's World 2 Wayne says this when he mistakenly believes that Heather Locklear is waving to him.
  • The Return of Swamp Thing: Exclaimed by the moonshiner Gurdell, when he and his buddy hear Abby's voice, just after talking about how neither of them has seen a woman (or a sheep) in months.
    Who says there ain't God?
  • In Real Genius, Chris, Mitch, and Jordan implant a transceiver on Kent's glasses, and give him orders while pretending to be Jesus. Kent's skeptical at first...
    "Jesus": And from now on, stop playing with yourself.
    Kent: It is God!
  • In Zootopia, Judy tries to power up an old subway train containing a drug lab, and Nick tells her "it would take a miracle to get this rust-bucket going!" When the train almost immediately springs back to life, Nick follows up with a deadpan "Well, hallelujah."
  • The Exception: Wilhelm says "Perhaps God hasn't forgotten me, after all."" when he's Offered the Crown of Germany once again, after previously having speculated there were inscrutable divine reasons behind his misfortunes.

     Literature 
  • Used literally, as a last-minute (and somewhat irritating) Aesop, in the third Uplift novel.
  • Melissa Mailey (aka "Schoolmarm from Hell") in 1634: The Baltic War uses the phrase several times in regards to Daryl McCarthy, when he acts like a mature adult with a good education, neither of which were previously considered to be accurate descriptions of him. (Notably, Melissa is an atheist.)
  • At the end of Catch-22, when Chaplain Tappman learns about Orr surviving his plane crash and sailing his raft all the way to neutral Sweden, he exclaims that it is a miracle and that he believes in God once again (having been plagued with doubts throughout the novel).
  • Used humorously in Small Favor of The Dresden Files. At a train station, Harry and Michael Carpenter a Knight of the Cross wielding a holy sword, fight their way through a group of hobgoblins to find a group of muggles huddled in an office, one of them gripping a cross and staring at Michael, who's standing there holding a glowing holy sword. Michael reassures her, "Of course He's there. Of course He listens." Then he admits, "Granted, He doesn't always answer quite this quickly."
  • Used for drama in Small Gods, the one which really expands on the God Needs Prayer Badly nature of the Disc. For hundreds of years, Omnians have stopped believing in Om, but rather the Omnian Church built up around it, and especially the Quisition that roots out heretics and those whose faith is lacking. So when Om in turtle form drops out of the sky onto Vorbis' head, preventing Brutha's public execution just in time, the belief created by witnessing this miracle is so strong it zaps Om back to full strength. And for a little while, far enough beyond full strength that he can whoop a whole pantheon's worth of asses single-handedly to stop a war.
  • Played with in the Stephen King novella Apt Pupil. After a Trauma Conga Line of a life that includes being a Holocaust survivor and losing his first wife to the camps, Morris Heisel abandons his faith when he falls off a ladder and breaks his back, leaving him paralyzed. However, he regains it after a) it starts to look like his paralysis will be temporary and b) he realizes that his hospital roommate is the commandant of the concentration camp he was imprisoned in, and he now has a chance to bring the man to justice.

     Live-Action TV 
  • In the Mr. Belvedere TV series, Belvedere got stuck because of something Kevin did. When Kevin got in a similar situation, Belvedere says this.
  • The TV show ER, episode "Whose Appy Now?". Carter's upset because he's being denied the chance to perform an exciting surgery and reassigned to an appendectomy instead.
    Dr. Angela Hicks: You haven't seen the patient yet.
    [Carter looks out the window and sees Dr. Benton being wheeled down the hall on a gurney]
    Dr. John Carter: Ohhhhhhhh there is a God!
  • Uttered by Jeremy Clarkson on Top Gear, when Richard Hammond draws the Vincent Black Shadow motorcycle for the Series 13 race to Edinburgh (Clarkson hates motorbikes). Pure Kayfabe, however, as all three presenters knew which vehicle they would get beforehand.
  • A humorous inversion from Babylon 5:
    Ivanova: If I get through this day without completely losing my mind, it will be a miracle of biblical proportions.
    Corwin: There goes my faith in the almighty.
  • 1000 Ways to Die uses a humorous version in the episode "Bitch Zapped" when a Henpecked Husband sees his harpy of a wife unknowingly running over the man's arc welder cord and getting electrocuted while showing him how to mow the lawn. After his wife fell lifeless on the ground, he nonchalantly picks up his wife's martini and says "There IS a god!" while shaking his head.
  • The Red Green Show:
    • In the very first episode, the lodge was trying to get a new insurance policy. Among other things, every lodge member had to get a medical examination, and there was worry about the lodge members being out of shape. One member, Noah, was obnoxiously trying to get everyone to exercise and eat healthy, and in the end, Noah was the only one who didn't get a clean bill of health. Red's response to the audience was "How can you not believe in God when stuff like that happens?"
    • Invoked in a later Possum Lodge Word Game: Red asked about what would happen if Dalton's daughter eloped with her boyfriend, and Dalton said it would renew his faith in the Almighty.
  • Red Dwarf: Used in series VIII, when Lister and Rimmer realize the prisoners of The Tank have reprogrammed Kryten (who's in the women's section) to secretly film the ladies' shower night.
    Lister: You know what this means, don't you?
    The Cat: There is a God?
  • That Mitchell and Webb Look feature a sketch titled There is No God spoofing this with an atheist version of finding a watermelon with its seeds arranged into the title words.
    Reporter: Reverend, what's the churches take on this? Is God done for?
    Reverend: No, obviously, there is a God and he's fine. This is just typical, silly atheism getting carried away. They look at a random pattern in a piece of fruit and think they found some message in it. You could equally say, ‘Look at all the horrible suffering in the world’ and say that proves there's no God.
  • During the first three seasons of Supernatural, Dean Winchester assumed there wasn't a God, just violence and chaos. But when Season 4 rolled around and an actual "Angel of the Lord" pulls him out of Hell, Dean realizes God is real and He has plans for Him.

     Music 
  • In his album Arizona Bay, Bill Hicks responds to California sliding into the Pacific Ocean this way.
    There is a God, he loves us all so much...
  • A straight example from the Country Music song "There Is a God", recorded by both Trent Willmon and Lee Ann Womack. In it, the narrator observes such things as the beauty of nature and the miracle of a cancer patient being healed by stating, "There is a God / How much more proof do you need?"

     Myths & Religion 
  • Unsurprisingly, it appears (in its serious form) in The Bible itself, in 1 Samuel and also in Psalm 58:
    The righteous will be glad when they are avenged when they dip their feet in the blood of the wicked.
    Then people will say, ‘Surely the righteous still are rewarded; surely there is a God who judges the earth.’.

     Video Games 
  • A comedic version can occur in Fire Emblem Fates in the player's customizable castle. If the food resource is a peach or berry garden, Azama has the following to say when giving some to Corrin:
    "Fruit is proof that the gods exist and love us. Just kidding! Life is meaningless.
  • Enemy Chatter in Batman: Arkham City has an inmate say this:
    Inmate: I heard Bruce Wayne got his rich ass locked up in Arkham City. Guess there really is a God.
  • Mafia II, Jimmy O'Neil proclaims his mother was right, there is a God because Vito Scaleta, one of his enemies, was brought before him.

     Web Comics 
  • In year 0 of the fictional timeline of Templars of the Shifting Verse everyone in the world saw visions of a Goddess. It's hard to argue that it was nothing.

     Web Original 
  • After having... pretty much everyone's religious beliefs insulted with Chuck Austen's bastardized and over-simplified representation of Catholicism and religion as a whole, Linkara of Atop the Fourth Wall asks that "Holy War" be expunged and be given something good. He is granted a Blue Beetle comic with a crack of thunder and responds "There is a God." Benzaie parodies this scene later asking the dimensional portal for help too.
  • In the pilot for Helluva Boss, Blitzo says this when the group learns that the child who just insulted all of them was their target along.
  • Throughout The Runaway Guys playthrough of the board Woody Woods from Mario Party 3, Emile finds ways to screw Jon out of getting Stars. Then Luigi, the AI, lands on Chance Time... and rolls Emile giving Jon two Stars.
    Jon: There is a God. There is a God. This is proof.

     Western Animation 
  • Long story short: when Eric Cartman gets a million dollars he buys an amusement park, which causes Kyle to lose his belief in God, which in turn causes him to be at death's door due to a hemorrhoid. At the end of the episode, Cartman gets his comeuppance.
    Stan: Look, Kyle, Cartman is totally miserable. [a shot of Cartman on his knees, sobbing] Even more miserable than he was before because he's had his dream and lost it.
    Cartman: It's not fair! It's not fair; I wanna die! I wanna daaahahie! [Kyle looks at Cartman, then up at the sky, then sits up and removes the oxygen mask]
    Kyle: You are up there! [smiles]
  • In Clone High, Joan Of Arc had been trying to stop her film (which contained a declaration of her love for Abe) from being played at the school film festival. When the projection booth catches fire and Edison announces all the films got destroyed, she proclaims there is a God. She then takes it back when Edison announces that Joan's film had not only survived but had been expanded somehow and was now in widescreen. Fortunately, her work was so abstract that no one suspected it was Joan's love letter to Abe...save for Sigmund Freud.
  • When Jay Sherman became a trucker and took his son on a trip, Marty pointed out a shooting star, insisting his father make a wish. Jay thinks a moment, and said shooting star annihilates a billboard advertising Ace Ventura. Quote the critic, "Thank you, God!"
  • In The New Scooby-Doo Movies episode "Scooby-Doo Meets The Addams Family," Shaggy lifts his hands to the sky and says "Somebody up there likes me" after the carpet ride he and Scooby took trailing a giant vulture lands safely on a lake surface.
  • The Simpsons: Bart's reaction to first seeing Jessica Lovejoy, backlit by apparently holy light (it's actually a lighthouse being pointed away from the sea. Jessica is anything but holy.).
  • In "The Big Candy Store" from Animaniacs, rude candy store owner Flaxseed tosses out a nun asking him to make a donation to the local orphanage. After the Warner Siblings arrive and start pissing Flaxseed off, he gets his hands on Wakko and Dot just as the nun returns with the rest of her convent. Already angry about his behavior, seeing him manhandle children (and the Warners playing it up to mess with Flaxseed further), the nuns are prepared to beat the ever loving shit out of him. Unfortunately, Flaxseed reminds them nuns aren't allowed to be violent. So they instead pray, at which point the Notre Dame Fighting Irish football team and cheerleading squad shows up and they pummel Flaxseed instead.
    Head Nun: Our prayers have been answered! (blows the whistle to commence the beatdown)
  • Kaeloo: In one episode, Mr. Cat prepares to attack Stumpy with a chainsaw, but is suddenly struck by lightning, causing Stumpy to remark "God exists!" Stumpy himself is hit by another lightning strike and adds "... or not!"

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