"God … promptly vanishes in a puff of logic"

Michele Friend

pp. 185-212

in: Nicholas Joll (ed), Philosophy and the Hitchhiker's guide to the galaxy, Basingstoke, Palgrave Macmillan, 2012

Abstract

There are some things that suddenly vanish: balloons, single socks and, perhaps, chesterfields. But, at least in the Hitchhiker's universe, nothing truly disappears. Things just get moved through some sort of time singularity and pop up again somewhere else. Well, almost nothing. God vanishes, at least according to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.¹ But then God is not really a "thing", is He? He's quite a special entity, having, allegedly, created all of the "things". He's also supposed to be all-powerful. So, how is it that God could "vanish in a puff of logic"? In this chapter I propose to examine the relevant passage, and the argument leading up to it, with some care and all the logical machinery I can summon. (But don't panic! It won't be too painful.)