"Shall the Dust Praise Thee?" is a science fiction short story by Damon Knight. It was first published in the anthology Dangerous Visions (1967). His agent refused to publish it and suggested the Atheist Journal in Moscow might buy it but no one else would.

Summary

God arrives for the apocalypse, but finds that all life on earth has disappeared. God finds that there has been a great war between England, Russia, China, and America, that has wiped out all life on earth, and that the true end of days had already occurred, by nuclear war, and other disasters such as the volcanic eruption of Vesuvius. No living creatures, no water, no grass, nothing but dust and brittle stone remained on the world. All that remains of humanity is the phrase left by the last humans as a message to God, saying, "We were here. Where were You?"

References