Captain Britain: When Mad Jim Jaspers fought a destructive battle with The Fury, Saturnyne's only reaction is "Mithras wept!" In a definite Brave New World shout-out in the Mortal Engines series, Londoners and some other traction city dwellers use "By Clio!" they may also use the odd Ford as well. The conventional wisdom is that religion is the realm of the irrational (in a good or a bad sense, depending on one's point of view), and as such, it can't be studied in the way that other aspects of human behavior are studied. But Stark argues that all of social science is based on the idea that human behavior is essentially explainable, and it therefore makes no sense to exclude a major and apparently constant behavior like religion-building from what should be studied scientifically. The sources of religious experience may well be mysterious, irrational, and highly personal, but religion itself is not. It is a social rather than a psychological phenomenon, and, absent conditions of active repression, it unfolds according to observable rules of group behavior. The White Court use "Empty Night". Word of God states that the last 3 books will be named after these curses, as there is a very good reason why they are considered curses . . . 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.)

Earl from My Name Is Earl would often shout out, "Holy Moses!" While Joy made her catchphrase, "Oh Snap!" Depending on how developed the world is, it is also quite common to invoke actual gods by name, such as the Gauls in Asterix saying "By Toutatis!" (well, he was an actual Gaulish god). Another common variation used by future civilizations is to invoke science or scientists instead. Occasionally an Alternate History with a non-monotheistic major religion will use this to demonstrate how different that world is. Sometimes a Physical God will reference themselves in this manner, with "By me!", " I swear by Myself!"," Jesus H. Me!" or similar. The inverse is Orphaned Etymology, which writers may consider avoiding. If, in the created world, there is nobody referred to as "God", and if there isn't at least a belief in an afterlife/underworld called Hell, then nobody should use expressions that invoke either — although a charitable audience could always put this down to Translation Convention.

In A Tale of Time City by Diana Wynne Jones, the people from Time City (essentially far-future) are very ceremonious atheists. Jonathan asks Vivian to "give your word of honour on the god Mao or Kennedy or Koran, or whatever you worship". Vivian, who comes from 1939 and therefore has no idea who Mao or Kennedy are, responds with "I give you my Bible oath." Kushiel's Legacy has a lot of the characters swearing by "Elua's Balls!" or "by Camael's Sword!" or something along these lines. The title character of Life of Pi, who puzzles the Indian community he grows up in by practicing Hinduism, Christianity, and Islam at the same time, appeals to "Jesus, Mary, Mohammed, and Vishnu!" in one breath. When a tiger climbs into his lifeboat. Instead of using Aslan's name they'll refer to him as "The Lion". (i.e. "By the Lion's mane!"). Characters from England say "By Jove" (a mythical deity they did NOT worship), while the Narnians say "By the Lion" (the deity they know and worship). "By Jove" was a popular expression in England at the time even though the Roman pantheon was not actively worshiped. This is not something specific to humans visiting Narnia. It was a euphemism because many people felt saying "God" or "Christ" was inappropriate.

In another Ringworld book, Louis Wu was trying to get a catatonic Puppeteer to wake up, and in frustration shouted "By Kdapt, Allah and Finagle, I summon thee!"Tasakeru: This is used frequently by the characters, as their whole society formed after the appearance of three Gods. Each species has their own unique mythology and names for the Gods, as well. The microscopic cast of Osmosis Jones use "Frank" in place of "God", this being the name of the man whose body they inhabit/constitute. In The Killers of Krypton, planet Colu native Z'ndr Kol exclaims "Thank P'llcyd" after putting a Kryptonite-proof suit on Krypto. When asked, he explains P'llcyd is one of his family's gods.

The rabbits in Watership Down often swear by their sun god Frith, occasionally using constructions such as "Frith in a pond!" or "Frith in a treetop!" At one point, Fiver exclaims "O embleer Frith!" in exasperation; given that "embleer" is a strong insult in the rabbit language, this is probably downright blasphemous. Wonder Woman (1942): In the Golden Age Diana and Hippolyte would occasionally swear by the "Hounds of Zeus", a god they explicitly did not worship or even respect in that continuity. Grandpa God: Granted, he's a lot less majestic than the usual use of this trope. Tophet chides about His down-market golf outfit to Bobby, saying He's too humble for his own good, pointing out his own high-end suit. In Krypton No More, Superman uses exclamations such as "Great Galaxies!"; Kara exclaims "Great Krypton" during the battle on planet Xonn; and Kandorians also say "Thanks to the stars!"The Chalion sword & theology series by Lois McMaster Bujold includes “Five gods!” as a general exclamation that covers all the gods. While any of the five gods may be invoked by name (Father, Mother, Son, Daughter, and Bastard), the most common curses are related to Bastard, his demons, and parts of His divine anatomy. In one book it explains that this is an important function of gods: it takes a very dedicated atheist to shout "Random fluctuations in the space-time continuum!" or " Outmoded superstition on a crutch!" after hitting his thumb with a hammer. Dwarf gods especially have no other reason for existing, and the dwarves claim to have no religion.

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. Romulan "Elements!" Originally appeared in the Rihannsu novels, in reference to a Romulan animistic belief in the four elements dating to their schism from the Vulcans. The Heartstrikers: Downplayed. Not only do humans still swear normally, but dragons, who have been pretending to be humans for a thousand years, do the same. Very rarely, they swear "by fire," the magic at the core of every dragon. Likewise, in the sequel series DFZ everyone still swears by God despite there being many, many more gods around now. Broker does at one point swear "blessed city," referencing the Genius Loci he lives in. Flint Fireforge, one of the heroes of the Dragonlance Chronicles trilogy, was fond of exclaiming, "Reorx's Beard!" Reorx being the patron god of the dwarves, he did have one hell of a beard, after all... Everything's Better with Rainbows: In Oh God! You Devil!, God makes a rainbow appear in the night sky above Las Vegas to confirm that he has heard Bobby Shelton's prayer.

Extract

Wendy Kaminer, the author of Sleeping with Extra-Terrestrials, sees a disturbing decline of reason in our public life, and warns of the consequences. In Larry Niven's Known Space, spacers have been known to swear by Brennan's left ear. Murphy is also a popular choice, as is Finagle.