Short story by Fredric Brown

Answer by Fredric Brown

Dwar Ev ceremoniously soldered the final connection with gold. The eyes of a dozen television cameras watched him, and the sub-ether carried a dozen images of his actions across the universe.

He straightened up and nodded to Dwar Reyn, then moved to stand beside the switch that would complete the connection when flipped. It would link, all at once, all the massive computing machines from every inhabited planet in the universe—ninety-six billion of them—into a super-circuit that would in turn unite them all into one super-calculator, a cybernetic machine combining all the knowledge of all the galaxies.

Dwar Reyn spoke briefly to the countless waiting viewers and, after a moment of silence, said:

"Now, Dwar Ev."

Dwar Ev flipped the switch. There was a mighty hum, a surge of power from ninety-six billion planets. Lights flickered and dimmed along the miles-long panel.

Dwar Ev stepped back and took a deep breath.

"The honor of asking the first question is yours, Dwar Reyn," he said.

"Thank you," replied Dwar Reyn. "It will be a question that no single cybernetic machine has ever been able to answer." He turned toward the machine. "Is there a God?"

A powerful voice answered without hesitation, without the click of a single relay:
"Yes, now there is a God."

Sudden terror struck Dwar Ev's face; he leaped forward to grab the switch.
A blinding bolt of lightning struck down from the cloudless sky, striking him dead and fusing the switch forever.