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God Test: Difference between revisions
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''Prove to me that you're divine; change my water into wine!"''|''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]'', "Herod's Song"}}
[[Carl Sagan|Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence]]. Therefore, when an ordinary-looking character [[God Guise|claims to be]] [[God]], [[Satan]], [[Magicians Are Wizards|a wizard]], [[My Future Self and Me|time traveller]], [[Artificial Human|robot]], or [[Human Alien|alien]], skeptics nearby will often demand a '''God Test''' to prove those claims. This will typically be a fantastic feat of some sort, something to be done that a regular person would never be able to do. The challenged party actually succeeding at the test is fairly rare, but they may respond with an explanation as to why they won't or why the test isn't meaningful. Thanks to Jesus' classic example there's a fair chance in the story this means they're on the level. Coming up with a test and having the God fail it is a good way to expose an impostor.
Often expressed as "If you're <X>, then do <Y>!"
Note that, despite the name, the test is not limited to deities; any character claiming extraordinary abilities can be challenged with such a test.
Might overlap with [[Give Me a Sign]]. Contrast with [[Secret Test]]. Also see [[Trust Password]] and [[If You're So Evil Eat This Kitten]].
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{{examples}}
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== Films -- Animated ==
* In ''[[The Road to El Dorado]]'', the Doradans challenge the explorers to a ballgame... two gods against 15 mortals.
== Films -- Live-Action ==
* In ''[[Oh, God!]]'', Jerry Landers asks the [[George Burns|old man]] claiming to be God to prove it by making it rain. On cue, it suddenly starts to rain... inside Jerry's moving car.
** Later, God proves His divinity in a courtroom by making a deck of cards appear and disappear in plain view. He concludes his visit by vanishing in full view of the audience, and there are no recordings (audio and written) of His testimony.
* Played with in ''[[Bruce Almighty]]'', when Bruce tries to catch God ([[Morgan Freeman|the other one]]) with a [[How Many Fingers?]] God Test. After God guesses correctly a few times, Bruce manages to fake him out by very quickly putting two fingers away when God says "Seven." When Bruce triumphantly holds up his one hand, it suddenly has that many fingers.
** Apparently, God also pulled the same stunt on Gandhi, who took it a lot harder than Bruce.
* [[M. Night Shyamalan]]'s ''[[The Last Airbender]]'' has one of these.
{{quote|"The Avatar would be an Airbender. Can you Airbend, boy?"}}
* In ''[[Back to The Future]] Part II'', Biff challenges his future self to prove that the Sports Almanac knows the results of every sporting event in the next 50 years.
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== Literature ==
* ''[[A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court]]'' plays with this one memorably: a charlatan claims to be able to tell people whatever is happening anywhere in the world. After listening to various plausible tales of the doings of foreign potentates, the main character takes his turn: "Tell me what I'm doing with my hands behind my back right now."
* In ''[[Discworld/The Last Hero|The Last Hero]]'' the Silver Horde try to sneak into Dunmanifestin by claiming to be 'new gods'. The locals know what's going on but, being [[Jerkass Gods|who they are]], decide to have some fun by demanding Cohen prove his bonafides by rolling a seven on a six-sided die. [[Cutting the Knot|He does]].
* During [[Warhammer
* [[The Bible]] features one of the [[Older Than Feudalism|oldest examples in existence]], and probably the oldest [[Subverted Trope|subversion]]; [[Satan]] tries to invoke this by suggesting Jesus prove he was the son of God by turning stones into bread. Jesus refused, saying "[[As the Good Book Says...|It is written]]; Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from Godʼs mouth." Not to be put off, Satan told him to jump from the roof of the temple, saying "If thou be the Son of God, cast thyself down from hence: For it is written, He shall give his angels charge over thee, to keep thee: And in their hands they shall bear thee up, lest at any time thou dash thy foot against a stone." [[Shut UP, Hannibal|Jesus refuses again]], saying "Again it is written, 'You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test.'"
** Also invoked in the New Testament letters. The Apostles instruct Christians to test any spirit claiming to be from Heaven, by verifying that the spirit in question confesses Jesus is Lord and that He came in the flesh, because demons will masquerade as angels of light to try to deceive people, but will never confess Jesus' Lordship or Incarnation before mortals, because doing so would subvert the deception.
** When Jesus is on the cross the authorities challenge him, "If you are the Son of God, come down from the cross."
** On the other hand, going even farther back, God did provide Moses with some evidence of Who sent him, starting with giving Moses temporary leprosy and turning his staff into a snake and back (with enough time for it to eat the Egyptian priests' staff-snakes), followed up by the Ten Plagues.
** Also in the Old Testament, Gideon tests God twice, both times by leaving a fleece on the floor overnight; once, having the fleece be wet with dew while the floor is dry, and once vice versa. Both are performed without objection.
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== Live-Action TV ==
* ''[[Battlestar Galactica Classic]]'' (1970's) episode "War of the Gods Part 1''. Count Iblis claims to have great powers and knowledge. The Council of Twelve gives him three challenges: to deliver their greatest enemy (Baltar) to them, to lead the fleet to Earth, and one more to be named later.
* ''[[Mystery Science Theater 3000]]'' parodies this: When the gang land in Roman Times, Pearl claims they are gods, and Brain Guy has to use his powers to demonstrate. "Behold! From nothing I produce this... [[What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?|spoon]]."
* Inverted in the ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'' episode "Who Watches the Watchers." A primitive alien tribe has come to believe that Picard is God (despite his protests), and to prove it one of them shoots him with a bow to prove that [[Spell My Name with a "The"|The Picard]] can't be killed. Fortunately for Picard the alien misses his heart, but does hit him in the shoulder, injuring him and thereby proving to the aliens that he isn't God.
* ''[[Quantum Leap]]'': Sam has leaped into an illiterate murderer on the run who is holding a woman and her daughter hostage. He decides to drop [[The Masquerade]], telling her he's a doctor from the future in a [[Time Travel]] experiment. She doesn't believe him. Then he notices her medical textbook, and she reveals that she's in medical school. So he has her quiz him on medical stuff to prove that he's telling the truth.
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== [[Newspaper Comics]] ==
* [[9 Chickweed Lane]]: Monty (who may or may not be [[God in Human Form]]) asks [[Cloudcuckoolander]] Thorax for advice on how to deal with his God Complex ("It started around the time I created the universe"). Thorax's recommendation? "Try prayer, and see if you get a busy signal."
== Theater ==
* ''[[Jesus Christ Superstar]]''. Quoth Herod to Jesus, "Prove to me that you're no fool/Walk upon my swimming pool." Of course, Jesus in the Gospels also comes up against demands for miracles to prove his status, and refuses to play along with them.
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[[Category:Speculative Fiction Tropes]]
[[Category:Magic and Powers]]
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