Editing Misotheism (section)

===Speculative fiction===
{{Unreferenced section|date=September 2018}}

A number of [[speculative fiction]] works present a dystheistic perspective, at least as far back as the works of [[Lovecraft Mythos|H. P. Lovecraft]] and [[Olaf Stapledon]]'s influential philosophical [[short novel]] ''[[Star Maker]]''.

By the 1970s, [[Harlan Ellison]] even described dystheism as a bit of a [[science fiction]] cliché. Ellison himself has dealt with the theme in his "[[The Deathbird]]", the title story of ''[[Deathbird Stories]]'', a [[short story collection|collection]] based on the theme of (for the most part) malevolent modern-day gods. [[Lester del Rey]]'s "[[Evensong (short story)|Evensong]]" (the first story in Harlan Ellison's much-acclaimed ''[[Dangerous Visions]]'' anthology), tells the story of a fugitive God hunted down across the universe by a vengeful humanity which seeks to "put him in his place". "[[Faith of Our Fathers (short story)|Faith of Our Fathers]]" by [[Philip K. Dick]], also from the same anthology, features a horrifying vision of a being, possibly God, who is all-devouring and amoral. [[Philip Pullman]]'s previously mentioned trilogy, ''[[His Dark Materials]]'', presented the theme of a negligent or evil God to a wider audience, as depicted in the 2007 film ''[[The Golden Compass (film)|The Golden Compass]]'' based on the first book of this trilogy.

The original series of [[Star Trek: The Original Series|''Star Trek'']] featured episodes with dystheistic themes, amongst them "[[The Squire of Gothos]]", "[[Who Mourns for Adonais?]]", "[[For the World Is Hollow and I Have Touched the Sky]]", and "[[The Return of the Archons]]". In "[[Encounter at Farpoint]]", the pilot episode of ''[[Star Trek: The Next Generation]]'', Captain [[Jean-Luc Picard]] informs [[Q (Star Trek)|Q]], a [[trickster]] with god-like powers similar to the antagonist in the aforementioned "Squire of Gothos" episode, that 24th-century humans no longer had any need to depend upon or worship god figures. This is an amplification of the tempered anti-theistic sentiment from "Who Mourns for Adonais?", in which Captain [[James T. Kirk]] tells [[Apollo]] that "Mankind has no need for gods, we find the one quite adequate." A later episode, "[[Who Watches the Watchers]]", depicts accidentally reviving theistic belief in a more primitive species as a negative thing which must be stopped. In ''[[Star Trek: Deep Space Nine]]'' it is revealed that the Klingon creation myth involves the first Klingons killing the gods that created them because, "They were more trouble than they were worth."

In the film ''[[Pitch Black (film)|Pitch Black]]'', anti-hero protagonist Richard B. Riddick stated his own belief, after an [[imam]] accuses him of [[atheism]]: "Think someone could spend half their life in a slam with a horse bit in their mouth and not believe? Think he could start out in some liquor store trash bin with an umbilical cord wrapped around his neck and not believe? Got it all wrong, holy man. I absolutely believe in God... and I absolutely hate the fucker."

[[Robert A. Heinlein]]'s book ''[[Job: A Comedy of Justice]]'', which is mostly about religious institutions, ends with an appearance by Yahweh which is far from complimentary.

The Athar, a fictional organization from the [[Faction (Planescape)|D&D's Planescape Campaign Setting]] denies the divinity of the setting's deities. They do, however, tend to worship "[[Deism|The Great Unknown]]" in their place. In the ''[[Pathfinder Roleplaying Game|Pathfinder]]'' universe, the nation of Rahadoum bans the worship of the setting's deities. They do not deny the deities' power or divinity, but instead believe that worshiping a deity is akin to enslaving ones' self and that mortals' problems are best solved without the interference of higher powers.

In the 2013 film ''[[Prisoners (2013 film)|Prisoners]]'', Holly Jones and her husband Isaac lost their faith in God after their son died of cancer. Since then, they have been kidnapping and murdering children in order to make other parents lose faith in God and turning them into revenge-driven hollow shells of their former selves, i.e. spreading their misotheism to other people. As Holly Jones states to Keller Dover near the end of the film: "Making children disappear is the war we wage with God. Makes people lose their faith, turns them into demons like you."

In the [[DC Extended Universe]] film ''[[Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice]]'', [[Lex Luthor]] has a misotheistic view of God, believing that if God was omnipotent, then he logically could not be omnibenevolent and vice versa (the theological [[problem of evil]]), thereby solidifying his belief that power cannot be innocent. He has a penchant for constantly implementing allusions to major figures of both pagan and biblical theology, with him notably comparing himself to Prometheus, [[General Zod]] to [[Icarus]], and [[Superman]] to [[Zeus (DC Comics)|Zeus]], [[Horus]], [[Apollo]], [[Presence (DC Comics)|Jehovah]] and [[Lucifer (DC Comics)|Satan]]. He even compares himself to the biblical God in one way, claiming to hate "the sin, not the sinner", and plays God by creating the monster [[Doomsday (DC Comics)|Doomsday]].

In the [[Luke Cage season 1|season 1]] of ''[[Luke Cage (TV series)|Luke Cage]]'', [[Diamondback (Willis Stryker)|Willis Stryker]]'s misotheism seemed to enforce his revenge mission against his half-brother [[Luke Cage]], quoting several Bible verses that directly link to Lukes's supposed betrayal against Stryker. The Judas Bullet was designed to symbolize this act of treachery; stating "one Judas to another" before shooting Luke in the abdomen and vowing to repeat the same words that [[Cain]] said to his [[Adam|father]] after killing [[Abel]] when he finally did kill Cage.