Prominent atheist Richard Dawkins has sparked controversy once again by publicly refuting the existence of retired professional wrestler Mick Foley, who is believed by many devout fans to be God.

Dawkins, whose best-selling 2006 book The God Delusion is considered a landmark in the “new atheist” movement, insists Foley is “a figment of wishful thinking among gullible dupes who believe a sock puppet is a viable weapon.”

The so-called afoleyist argument was first popularized by late contrarian cultural critic Christopher Hitchens in his book Foley is Not Good: How Wrestling Fans Ruin Everything. 

But whereas Hitchens took an agnostic perspective on Foley’s godliness, Dawkins takes the argument a step further, positing that Foley’s existence itself is a matter of “blind faith and groupthink.”

Dawkins points out the “logical absurdity” of the so-called Holy Trinity — the dogmatic concept that Foley can simultaneously be Cactus Jack, Mankind, and Dude Love.

He also refutes claims that “Mrs. Foley’s baby boy” was a virgin birth of immaculate conception, pointing to evidence in the holy scripture (Foley’s 1998 autobiography Have a Nice Day) that the wrestler was actually sired by a flesh-and-blood human named Jack Foley.

According to a recent study, however, the stronger the arguments become against the existence of Foley, the more vehemently evangelical Folians will assert that “Foley is God.”