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Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention

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6 referencing feature instances

	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	type	FeatureClass
	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	label	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention
	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	page	SlidingScaleOfDivineIntervention
	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	comment	Otherwise known as "When a character yells Smite Me, O Mighty Smiter, the chance that the Mighty Smiter will actually oblige." On a scale of 1 to n: 0: Gods Don't Really Exist. Religion exists but no one is really receiving the prayers. At best, the gods are myth and superstition; if the author is charitable enough toward religion, they may have religiously-motivated characters at least doing good works in the name of their god. If the author is less sympathetic, then Belief Makes You Stupid and better people have Outgrown Such Silly Superstitions. Or you have a Religion of Evil and/or Path of Inspiration where the only real beneficiaries are the corrupt men that run it. 1: The Gods Have Left the Building God or gods were present once, but for all intents and purposes have left or died or were sealed away (think the Titans of Greek myth). If you were four billion years old, you might want a vacation too. 2: The Watchmaker: A god or gods exist, but they keep out of worldly affairs. They may be The Creator and may keep the laws of nature working behind the scenes, but there's no way to tell if they care about being worshiped or not. Might be either True Neutral or Above Good and Evil. Or they are Neglectful Precursors. Authors who write Watchmaker gods are either neutral about the idea of God or hold the viewpoint that the beauty of nature, physics, math, order, etc, are sufficient justification for God's existence (A.K.A. the Watchmaker Argument), though they may not share the same views about organized religion. Sufficiently hard sci-fi works rarely go above this level on the scale. 3: God Works In Mysterious Ways: Gods have an influence on the mortal plane and a vested interest in the people on it. However, they do not (i.e. The Gods Must Be Lazy) or can not (i.e. God's Hands Are Tied) intervene directly. They may send signs, omens, and occasional lightning strikes, or a mortal in their service acquires powers to do the god's will, whether or not they're entirely sure what that will is. If two gods are fighting, expect the fighting to spill over to their followers. Or they exist outside the mortal plane, but their power can be drawn on by the occult-minded. An atheist or a Nay-Theist may still get away with not being struck down. At this level, gods start to acquire Anthropomorphic Personifications and may Need Prayer Badly. This is about as high as strict realistic settings go. 4: God Walks Among Us Gods can manifest themselves directly. It may be a God in Human Form and it may be your copilot. Probably makes the rain fall and the wheat grow. May even take human husbands and wives. If you piss this type of god off, expect a mighty smiting. Pray that they aren't Jerkass Gods or expect to be smitten more often and painfully. However, people still have reasonable free will (at least in the sense that gods are not directly controlling their actions) and the gods are not necessarily infallible and may still need the help of their followers to do their smiting. 5 through Infinity: God-King of the Cosmos God is everywhere, omniscient, omnipresent and truly omnipotent, and makes sure everyone knows it. In this universe, You Can't Fight Fate if Fate does indeed exist. Usually only present in Fluffy Cloud Heaven, but there are exceptions. Sandbox God For this "God" all of the above may or even may not apply, but only for their little world, or sandbox. Outside of this sandbox however, he or she is powerless, or at the very least, just simply not all-powerful. Not actually gods by the traditional definition. Ignorant God This entity is a god, but for all intents and purposes, does not realize that they are a god. Can manifest as any of the above 5, as since they don't know what they are, their power, while undeniable, is also random (Haruhi Suzumiya). Said ignorance can be due to any number of factors, including a divine memory gambit meant to delay insanity due to being everything and every possibility at once, and being unable to evolve or change (see God Emperor and Heretics of Dune, and Ghost in the Shell (1995)). Gods who are actually Sufficiently Advanced Aliens are difficult to place because they might fall anywhere on the scale from 1 (setting themselves up as gods making lesser races their worshipful servants) to 2 (Precursors) all the way up to 5 (The Q Continuum). That baring the debate over whether they count as gods at all. See also Super Weight. Examples
	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	fetched	2024-03-14T20:00:48Z
	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	parsed	2024-03-14T20:00:48Z
	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	isPartOf	DBTropes

The following is a list of statements referring to the current page from other pages.

	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention	processingCategory2	Sorting Algorithm of Tropes
	Preacher (Comic Book) / int_5abd41e	type	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention
	Circle of Magic / int_5abd41e	type	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention
	Tales of MU / int_5abd41e	type	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention
	World of the Five Gods / int_5abd41e	type	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention
	Ryse: Son of Rome (Video Game) / int_5abd41e	type	Sliding Scale of Divine Intervention

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