There is a novel by
James Morrow called
Towing Jehovah in which
god dies. Literally. His 2 mile long body, flowing grey beard and all are found floating in the
ocean at 0,0 lat and long.
The protagonists of the book, a tanker captain who is hired to tow god for burial and a priest try to figure out why god had died. What they came up with was this: God had decided that his continual existence, or at least belief in his existence was holding humanity back, that they needed more independence. The only way to accomplish this was to die. That, in one fell swoop proved that god had exsisted, but did not anymore. Thus people could be freed from speculation and yet take heart in knowing that there was a god.
I found it deliciously ironic to think that the only way to prove there is no god was to prove that there WAS a god, but he's dead now.