History Main / ReligiousRussianRoulette

** Calvin in as he unsuccsessfully begs for it to snow:

* This can sometimes be the impetus for real life turns to atheism. Something doesn't happen the way their religious belief suggests it would, and they start to doubt. However, rather than leave the person a bitter, god-hating shell, it's more likely to make the person more perceptive to atheists' reasons for disbelief. Sometimes it sticks. Other times, the religious person will end up renewing their faith. Either way, the common end of this trope, being angry at God, is at most a temporary state, if it happens at all. The person either returns to their faith, or stops believing, and why be angry at a non-existent deity?
* One common belief in Christianity is that this sort of thing - demanding an action from God in order to justify faith or prove himself real - is a sin, sometimes called "Tempting God". A RealLife example is AbusiveParents refusing medical treatment for their child because they expect God to heal them. The most common, but extreme example to explain this to children would be jumping off a cliff and expecting God to catch you.

* For a specific in-[[Literature/TheBible Scripture]] example, look at the Literature/BookOfJob. God allowed a lot of crap to happen to Job even though the book explicitly states that Job didn't do anything to earn it; Satan was just trying to goad him into blaspheming by making him suffer. Job (without the blasphemy that Satan desired) spends most of the book lamenting that he didn't deserve his suffering - especially since his friends, on the grounds that suffering is the consequence of sin, argue that he ''did'' somehow deserve it - and working his way up to demanding answers as to why it happened. God eventually does intervene, but only to say "I'm God, you're not, who are ''you'' to make Me explain Myself?" Job immediately shuts up and quits his whining.

!Examples:

* In ''MajorLeague'', Pedro Cerrano is a practitioner of voodoo, worshiping the spirit Jabu. In his last at bat, Pedro tells Jabu that if he can't hit this curve, he won't believe in him anymore. After two strikes, he decides to abandon him anyway. "I say 'Fuck you.' I do it myself." He hits it, it's a homer, and by the sequel he's converted to Buddhism. It's also implied that this is how he came to worship Jabu in the first place; when a teammate talks to him about Christianity, Pedro remarks that he likes Jesus very much -- but he never helped him hit breaking balls.
* ConanTheBarbarian, rather than giving Crom an ultimatum, simply says, "To Hell with you! I'll do it myself." And it pays off; when Conan is about to be struck down, a vision of Valeria appears so he can finish the battle.
** Probably the most accurate part of the movie: Crom, being the war-god of a ProudWarriorRace, has no time to aid weaklings who cannot overcome their challenges alone.
** In the books Crom explicitly can't be prayed to; those who believe in him say that the only response to such audacity would be death. According to them Crom has already given them everything worth having by giving them life and the ability to do battle. It's up to them to do the rest.
* TheGrey has a scene in which the main character (lost in the Alaskan wilderness after a plane crash, with the likelihood of starving / freezing to death very close, and with his fellow survivors having already been killed by the wolf pack that's still stalking him) has a RageAgainstTheHeavens moment where he tells God "Fuck faith, ''earn'' it!" and that he needs help ''now''. [[spoiler: Nothing happens. However, the ending scene has him surrounded by the wolf pack, but the alpha chooses to fight him in a one-on-one dominance fight, rather than having them all attack at once, giving him a fighting chance of survival (he's a seasoned soldier armed with a knife and improvised claw-knuckledusters). The ending is ambiguous about whether he survived the fight or not]].

* Sergeant Major Williams does this in an episode of ''ItAintHalfHotMum'' where he tried praying to Hare Krishna.

* Calvin in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' as he unsuccsessfully begs for it to snow:

** Played with in another ''Calvin and Hobbes'' strip where Calvin, just before beaning Susie with a water balloon, prays for a sign that this would be wrong. No sign; he beans her and she beats him up. "How come the universe always gives you the sign '''after''' you do it?" In this case, he's hoping for a negative result, and the object of the experiment is objective morality rather than God, but otherwise the structure is the same.

* One of the many reasons people fall to Chaos in Warhammer40K: Despite the massive religious bureaucracy set after his quasi-death, the GodEmperor of Man is still just a man, so when prayer to Him doesn't work, people tend to go with one of the other PhysicalGods of the setting.
** Much like Crom above, Khorne (one of the Chaos gods) does ''not'' take well to people who demand things of him without something to show for it, or even pray to him. Time spent praying is time not spent butchering enemies (or allies), spilling their blood so he may drink it.

* An unusual example in ''Literature/{{Mistborn}}'': [[spoiler:After Sazed crosses the DespairEventHorizon, he loses his sense of generalized faith and starts going through the 200+ religions he knows about looking for one that he feels can offer a suitable explanation for everything wrong with the world. He winds up throwing out all of them for having logical flaws before eventually realizing it doesn't really work like that.]]

->'''Guidance Counsellor:''' Dwicky, you really believe in aliens?
->'''Dwicky:''' Ha ha, not any more! All the childlike wonder was ripped from my heart the day my foot was stuck in an escalator, and [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything aliens]] ''[[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything didn't]]'' [[DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything come rescue me]].
-->--''InvaderZim'': Vindicated

If the PowersThatBe didn't come through for him, why would they do so for anyone else? This nice little angry depression will last right up until a left field miracle kicks in. It is MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, but Bob now has something spiritual to chew on. Typically, any non-answer from the PowersThatBe is chalked up to Bob asking for the wrong thing or for the wrong reason, such as selfish or hurtful wishes or expecting God to out and out prove His existence on demand.

[[AC:{{Film}}]]

** Probably the most accurate part of the movie: Crom, being the war-god of a ProudWarriorRace, has no time to aid weaklings who cannot overcome their challenges alone.
** In the books Crom explicitly can't be prayed to; those who believe in him say that the only response to such audacity would be death. According to them Crom has already given them everything worth having by giving them life and the ability to do battle. It's up to them to do the rest.

[[AC:Jokes]]

[[AC:Literature]]

[[AC:LiveActionTV]]
* In ''Series/TheFactsOfLife'', Blair describes how this applies to her: she once prayed to God to stop her parents' divorce; He didn't, and she stopped believing in Him.

[[AC:NewspaperComics]]
* Calvin in ''ComicStrip/CalvinAndHobbes'' as he unsuccsessfully begs for it to snow:
--> '''Calvin''': Do you want me to become an atheist?!

[[AC:Religion and Mythology]]

[[AC:TabletopGames]]

[[AC:WesternAnimation]]

----

* Building on the previous two examples, look at the book of Job in Literature/TheBible. God allowed a lot of crap to happen to Job even though the book explicitly states that Job didn't do anything to earn it; Satan was just trying to goad him into blaspheming by making him suffer. Job (without the blasphemy that Satan desired) spends most of the book lamenting that he didn't deserve his suffering - especially since his friends, on the grounds that suffering is the consequence of sin, argue that he ''did'' somehow deserve it - and working his way up to demanding answers as to why it happened. God eventually does intervene, but only to say "I'm God, you're not, who are ''you'' to make Me explain Myself?" Job immediately shuts up and quits his whining.

* A man is on the roof of his house as floodwaters rise. A raft of people come by and offer to take him to safety. He declines, saying he has faith that God will rescue him. Next a rescue helicopter offers him a ladder, but he again declines. The waters continue to rise, and he drowns. At God's throne, the man asks why God didn't save him. God replies, "Seriously? I sent you a raft, I sent you a helicopter..."
* "Take prayer out of Public schools? There will always be prayer in Public Schools as long as you have Midterms!"

* This can sometimes be the impetus for real life turns to atheism. Something doesn't happen the way their religious belief suggests it would, and they start to doubt. However, rather than leave the person a bitter, god-hating shell, it's more likely to make the person more perceptive to atheists' reasons for disbelief. Sometimes it sticks. Other times, the religious person will end up renewing their faith. Either way, the common end of this trope, being angry at god, is at most a temporary state, if it happens at all. The person either returns to their faith, or stops believing, and why be angry at a non-existent deity?

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': Sokka spends an entire episode stuck in a shallow hole, bargaining with the powers that be. If they agree to let him out, he'll agree to give up meat and sarcasm...

** Played with in another ''Calvin and Hobbes'' strip where Calvin, just before beaning Susie with a snowball, prays for a sign that this would be wrong. No sign; he beans her and she beats him up. "How come the universe always gives you the sign '''after''' you do the thing?" In this case, he's hoping for a negative result, and the object of the experiment is objective morality rather than God, but otherwise the structure is the same.

* Christianity calls this trope the mortal sin of [[http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36799 "Tempting God".]] Demanding an action from God in order to justify faith or prove himself real. A RealLife example is AbusiveParents refusing medical treatment for their child because they expect God to heal them. The most common, but extreme example to explain this to children would be jumping off a cliff and expecting God to catch you.

* Building on the previous two examples, look at the book of Job in Literature/TheBible. God allowed a lot of crap to happen to Job even though the book explicitly states that Job didn't do anything to earn it; Satan was just trying to goad him into blaspheming by making him suffer. Job (without the blasphemy that Satan desired) spends most of the book lamenting that he didn't deserve his suffering - especially since his friends, on the grounds that suffering is the consequence of sin, argue that he ''did'' somehow deserve it - and working his way up to demanding answers as to why it happened. God eventually does intervene, but only to say "[[GodIsEvil I'm God, you're not, who are ''you'' to make Me explain Myself?]]" Job immediately shuts up and quits his whining.

* Building on the previous two examples, look at the book of Job in Literature/TheBible. God allowed a lot of crap to happen to Job even though the book explicitly states that Job didn't do anything to earn it; Satan was just trying to goad him into blaspheming by making him suffer. Job (without the blasphemy that Satan desired) spends most of the book lamenting that he didn't deserve his suffering - especially since his friends, on the grounds that suffering is the consequence of sin, argue that he ''did'' somehow deserve it - and working his way up to demanding answers as to why it happened. God eventually does intervene, but only to say "I'm God, you're not, who are ''you'' to make Me explain Myself?" Job immediately shuts up and quits his whining.

[[AC:RealLife]]
* This can sometimes be the impetus for real life turns to atheism. Something doesn't happen the way their religious belief suggests it would, and they start to doubt. However, rather than leave the person a bitter, god-hating shell, it's more likely to make the person more perceptive to atheists' reasons for disbelief. Sometimes it sticks. Other times, the religious person will end up renewing their faith. Either way, the common end of this trope, being angry at god, is at most a temporary state, if it happens at all. The person either returns to their faith, or stops believing, and why be angry at a non-existent deity?
* Christianity calls this trope the mortal sin of [[http://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/dictionary/index.cfm?id=36799 "Tempting God".]] Demanding an action from God in order to justify faith or prove himself real. A RealLife example is AbusiveParents refusing medical treatment for their child because they expect God to heal them. The most common, but extreme example to explain this to children would be jumping off a cliff and expecting God to catch you.
** Notably, this is exactly what Satan tries to convince Jesus to do during the second temptation. Jesus replies, "[Scripture] also says, 'You shall not put the Lord your God to the test.'"
* Building on the previous two examples, look at the book of Job in Literature/TheBible. God allowed a lot of crap to happen to Job even though the book explicitly states that Job didn't do anything to earn it; Satan was just trying to goad him into blaspheming by making him suffer. Job (without the blasphemy that Satan desired) spends most of the book lamenting that he didn't deserve his suffering - especially since his friends, on the grounds that suffering is the consequence of sin, argue that he ''did'' somehow deserve it - and working his way up to demanding answers as to why it happened. God eventually does intervene, but only to say "I'm God, you're not, who are ''you'' to make Me explain Myself?" Job immediately shuts up and quits his whining.

[[ACTabletopGames]]

->'''Dwicky:''' Ha ha, not any more! All the childlike wonder was ripped from my heart the day my foot was stuck in an escalator, and aliens ''didn't'' come rescue me.

See also: SmiteMeOhMightySmiter, CrisisOfFaith, and InMysteriousWays.

Bob is in a crisis, so he turns to {{God}}, gods, CrystalDragonJesus, aliens, or TropeTan for aid but laces it with an ultimatum. Bob will be the bestest follower and prophet of his/her/its/their greatness if they'll just come through with this one teeny-tiny miracle. If they don't? Well then he'll have empirical proof of the absence or [[JerkassGod jerkassness of God]], and will convert to another religion or become a HollywoodAtheist or NayTheist.

Bob is in a crisis, so he turns to {{God}}, gods, CrystalDragonJesus, aliens, or TropeTan for aid but laces it with an ultimatum. Bob will be the bestest follower and prophet of his/her/its/their greatness if they'll just come through with this one teeny-tiny miracle. If they don't? Well then he'll have empirical proof of the absence or [[JerkassGod jerkassness of God]], and will convert to another religion or become a HollywoodAtheist.

This gets very thorny very quickly as Bob's miracle will probably fail to manifest. Did he not [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve pray]] hard [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly enough]]? Was he ignored? [[HaveYouSeenMyGod Is God even there?]] In his game of [[TitleDrop Religious Russian Roulette]], Bob just pulled the trigger on the loaded chamber of gnostic [[note]]In sense of convinced, confident[[/note]] a/theism.

See also: SmiteMeOhMightySmiter.

* An unusual example in ''{{Mistborn}}'': [[spoiler:After Sazed crosses the DespairEventHorizon, he loses his sense of generalized faith and starts going through the 200+ religions he knows about looking for one that he feels can offer a suitable explanation for everything wrong with the world. He winds up throwing out all of them for having logical flaws before eventually realizing it doesn't really work like that.]]

* In ''TheFactsOfLife'', Blair describes how this applies to her: she once prayed to God to stop her parents' divorce; He didn't, and she stopped believing in Him.

This gets very thorny very quickly as Bob's miracle will probably fail to manifest. Did he not [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve pray]] hard [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly enough]]? Was he ignored? [[HaveYouSeenMyGod Is God even there?]] In his game of [[TitleDrop Religious Russian Roulette]], Bob just pulled the trigger on the loaded chamber of gnostic a/theism.

This gets very thorny very quickly as Bob's miracle fails to manifest. Did he not [[ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve pray]] hard [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly enough]]? Was he ignored? [[HaveYouSeenMyGod Is God even there?]] Bob just pulled the trigger on the one loaded chamber in his game of [[TitleDrop Religious Russian Roulette]]. After blowing his theological brains out, Bob will embrace atheism with all the [[TheFundamentalist Fundamentalist]] fervor he can muster: if the PowersThatBe didn't come through for him, why would they do so for anyone else? This nice little angry depression will last right up until a left field miracle kicks in. It is MaybeMagicMaybeMundane, but Bob now has something spiritual to chew on.

Typically, any non-answer from the PowersThatBe is chalked up to Bob asking for the wrong thing or for the wrong reason, such as selfish or hurtful wishes or expecting God to out and out prove His existence on demand. If it's anything like a ComicBook/ChickTract, the appearance of a true miracle (on demand, no less!) will [[EasyEvangelism instantly convert]] Bob to whatever religion the author wants. In works where the existence of God and the Devil are established facts, this situation is often caused because either GodIsEvil, [[JerkassGod a Jerkass]], [[GodIsInept inept]], or [[GodIsFlawed simply flawed]]. At the very least, it's a case for GodAndSatanAreBothJerks.

* Building on the previous two examples, look at the book of Job in Literature/TheBible. God allowed a lot of crap to happen to Job, and Job spends most of the book complaining that he didn't earn it (especially since his friends, on the grounds that suffering is the consequence of sin, argue that he ''did'' somehow earn it) and working his way up to demanding answers as to why it happened. God eventually does intervene, but only to say "I'm God, you're not, who are ''you'' to make me explain Myself?" Job immediately shuts up and quits his whining.
** Actually, God explains that bad things happen to both good and bad people and that Job's sin was self-righteous.

* [[AvatarTheLastAirbender Sokka]] spends an entire episode stuck in a shallow hole, bargaining with the powers that be. If they agree to let him out, he'll agree to give up meat and sarcasm...