On Literature: On God (From Fiction to Science-Fiction)

"We know that there is an infinite, and we know not its nature. As we know it to be false that numbers are finite, it is therefore true that there is a numerical infinity. But we know not of what kind; it is untrue that it is even, untrue that it is odd; for the addition of a unit does not change its nature; yet it is a number, and every number is odd or even (this certainly holds of every finite number). Thus, we may quite well know that there is a God without knowing what He is." (Blaise Pascal, "Pensées", 1670)

"Sometimes the gods themselves forget the answers to their own riddles." (Edwin L. Arnold, "Lieut. Gullivar Jones: His Vacation", 1905)

"People believe in God because they’ve been conditioned to believe in God." (Aldous Huxley, "Brave New World", 1932)

"All perfection comes from within, and the perfection that is imposed from without is as frivolous and stupid as the trimmings on gingercake. The free man may be bad, but only the free man can be good. And all the kingdom and the power and the glory—call it of God, call it of Cosmos - must arise from the free will of man." (Anthony Boucher, "The Barrier", 1942)

"The gods do not speak the language of men, any more than men can speak the language of the gods." (Miriam Allen deFord, "The Apotheosis of Ki", 1956)

"Only the man who has had to face despair is really convinced that he needs mercy. Those who do not want mercy never seek it. It is better to find God on the threshold of despair than to risk our lives in a complacency that has never felt the need of forgiveness. A life that is without problems may literally be more hopeless than one that always verges on despair." (Thomas Merton, "No Man Is an Island", 1955)

"Man does not create gods, in spite of appearances. The times, the age, impose them on him." (Stanislaw Lem, "Solaris", 1961)

"If there are any gods whose chief concern is man, they cannot be very important gods." (Arthur C Clarke, "Rocket to the Renaissance", [revised version] 1962)

"To be an atheist is to maintain God." (Ursula K Le Guin, "The Left Hand of Darkness", 1969)

"I have seen God creating the cosmos, watching its growth, and finally destroying it." (Olaf Stapledon, "Nebula Maker", 1976)

"Man and the true God are identical—as the Logos and the true God are - but a lunatic blind creator and his screwed-up world separate man from God. That the blind creator sincerely imagines that he is the true God only reveals the extent of his occlusion." (Philip K Dick, "Valis", 1981)

"All the universe is just a dream in God's mind, and as long as he's asleep, he believes in it, and things stay real." (Orson Scott Card, "The Tales of Alvin Maker: Seventh Son", 1987)

"People needed to believe in gods, if only because it was so hard to believe in people." (Terry Pratchett, "Pyramids", 1989)

"God created two acts of folly. First, He created the Universe in a Big Bang. Second, He was negligent enough to leave behind evidence for this act, in the form of the microwave radiation." (Paul Erdős)