Oh Gods!!

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She has deliberately intertwined race relations into the spellbinding fiction with powerful effect. The Greek Gods have a choice as to what they look like, including their skin – and most have preferred to be white. The Genie also calls Aladdin "Doubting Mustapha", which is likely a reference to "Doubting Thomas". In Lawrence Watt-Evans The Legends of Ethshar series, theurgy is a legitimate school of magic where you invoke a specific deity out of about 30 to hopefully do something for you. People naturally exclaim 'Gods!', or 'By all the gods in the sky, sea, and earth!' if the former isn't strong enough.

In the comic sci-fi novel Mallworld, people regularly swear by "the Pope's tits", evidently just so the author can toss the incongruity of a female Pope in on top of all the other weirdness. In Shatterpoint, Mace Windu says, "May the Force give me strength," which is noted to be as close to swearing as he ever comes.

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Harry Dresden frequently uses "Hell's bells!" and "Stars and stones!" out of his deep faith in magic in lieu of an organized religion. In Peace Talks, his elderly mentor gripes that Harry doesn't even know the true meaning of those oaths. Wonder Woman (1987): Diana uses Oh, Morpheus help me as an expression after waking from a bad dream. Supergirl also used to swear by Rao frequently. In the Post-Flashpoint universe she often swears: "Praise Rao" or "Sweet Rao". And in Supergirl #33 during the Red Daughter of Krypton story arc, Kara says "Because Rao apparently thought my day wasn't being hard enough”. The mostly atheist Dragonriders of Pern swear by the name of Faranth, and Faranth's egg. More often, their swearing is a product of their environment: "Shells and shards!" or expressions such as "... and the hindmost falls Between."

Ursula K. Le Guin's The Left Hand of Darkness takes a brief divergence to discuss a small cult started around an insane Seer called Meshe, which excuses various characters to spout "Meshe's milk!" or "By the tits of Meshe!" whenever surprised or confounded. Both of which remind us that Meshe, although referred to as "he", is really a hermaphrodite like everyone else on the planet (except Genly Ai, who comes from Earth). In Oathbringer, the Herald Shallash becomes the first character in the entire Cosmere to swear by Adonalsium, the original god of the Cosmere. Because of this Sheppard wanted to highlight in the book is that “there is joy in being a teen girl”. New movements are not only a part of Christianity but an enormous part of it," I was told by David Barrett, the editor of the World Christian Encyclopedia, when I asked him about Christian NRMs. "According to our estimates, the specifically new independent churches in Christianity number about three hundred and ninety-four million, which is getting on for twenty percent of the Christian world. So it starts to look faintly ridiculous, you see, when the 'respectable' Christians start talking patronizingly about these new, 'strange' Christians appearing everywhere. In a very short time the people in those movements will be talking the same way about us." Marvel Comics comes closest with Luke Cage saying "Sweet Christmas!" as a dodge for invoking the name of Jesus. There are real Greek and Roman gods wandering around that 'verse, too.At the climax of Oh God! You Devil, when the Devil lost his nerve in a poker showdown with God, God commented, "I put the fear of Me into you." Toby Lester, the author of "Oh, Gods!" in the February Atlantic, talks about the Darwinian way religions mutate and evolve. The Shi'ar of X-Men often exclaims "Sharra and K'ythri!" under the same circumstances as Starfire's "X'hal!" We've since met Sharra and K'ythri. In fact, almost all of the beings who own the names that get used in such exclamations (as well as magic spells) throughout the Marvel Universe have been encountered at least once. (Turns out several of them are not very nice people.)

I asked a lot of the scholars at the conference why they thought it was important to study new religious movements. Perhaps the most succinct answer came from Susan Palmer, a Canadian who in recent years has become an expert on the Raëlians (and whose ancestors were Mormon polygamists who fled U.S. persecution in the nineteenth century). "If you're interested in studying religion," she told me, "NRMs are a great place to start. Their history is really short, they don't have that many members, their leader is usually still alive, and you can see the evolution of their rituals and their doctrines. It's a bit like dissecting amoebas instead of zebras." In Seeker Bears, bears use exclamations such as "Spirits!", as their religions revolve around spirits but no gods. Recognizing that the appeal of the series was George Burns himself, the third movie, Oh, God! You Devil (1984), has him play both God and Satan. In a straightforward Deal with the Devil plot, a struggling musician named Bobby Shelton (Ted Wass) sells his soul to the Devil in exchange for fame and fortune. Trapped by Satan, he seeks help from God (who has been watching over him), and the two nemeses face off for God's list of protected souls. Shatter the Sky: Characters swear by Tera's bones mostly (presumably a deity they believe in) or wish other people well with "Tera be with you".The Night World Series by LJ Smith has many instances where the characters, particularly witches and members of Circle Daylight, will swear to their Goddess. Jez and Hugh tend to say it a lot, leading to Morgead figuring out that Jez is a Daylighter. By the surly beard of Mrifk" often triggers a pass-it-to-the-next-reader moment in the party-game version of The Eye of Argon. In the Avatar Press continuity, the humans of the under realm often swear by "Great Maklu!". The demons occasionally say it as well though they don't actually hold the god Maklu in any esteem. According to Salacia, it was just an expression that crept into their language.