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There's a sci-fi story with a cracking opening line. It goes something like

It happened around the time they found god, behind the moon, and they sent a fleet of spaceships to tow Her out

I maybe read the story about 20 years ago and I believe it's a fairly well known title.

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  • "Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus" begins in a similar way (will find the exact quote later tonight). It's not sci-fi though.
    – Quassnoi
    Commented Apr 11, 2023 at 19:52
  • "As he quickly shared his telescope, the sight of these beautiful beings inspired the Martians, and their depression miraculously lifted. Suddenly they felt needed. They came out of their caves and began building a fleet of spaceships to fly to Venus."
    – Quassnoi
    Commented Apr 12, 2023 at 17:42
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    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Jun 30 at 6:24

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Honestly, I wouldn't know if it's well known, but it sounds like the 1975 short story Settling the World by M. John Harrison. The first sentence:

With the discovery of God on the far side of the Moon, and the subsequent gigantic and hazardous towing operation that brought Him back to start His reign anew, there began on Earth, as one might assume, a period of far-reaching change.

I first read it in a collection of his short stories titled Things that Never Happen, but it can also be found in another one of his collections also titled Settling the World.

You can find a pretty detailed review for the Settling the World collection here. Its coverage of the short story Settling the World begins at the fifth paragraph. Things that Never Happen seems to have gotten a lot less coverage, but I did find a review here. Both collections have a good chunk of short stories in common.

Finally, the Internet Speculative Fiction Database lists all (I assume) the places this short story has been published.

It's a great short story, and I hope you get the chance to read it again :)

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  • Welcome to our site, and well done on an excellent find. Your answer is a little bit on the short side – perhaps you'd like to edit it to add more information? For instance, it's a 1975 short story, or it's in the author's eponymous short story collection. And/or you could add a link to a review of the collection? Or that the author won the Goldsmiths Prize for another work? Plenty to expand upon... :-)
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Jun 27 at 8:33
  • 1
    Whoops, sorry! I haven't been here before, I just stumbled upon it when searching for something else (why is discovering God on the opposite side of the moon such a common sci-fi trope that I only ever found after reading this short story??). I added in some more stuff that I think I would have added the first time if I knew I should have written more.
    – user21329
    Commented Jun 29 at 5:13
  • The extra detail you've added is fantastic – and is sure to earn you extra upvotes which in turn builds your reputation points. Additional rep points unlock new privileges: for example, you can now comment on other users' posts (pts required: 50). This answer has also earned you a relatively uncommon necromancer badge. I hope you visit again for further excellent contributions! :-)
    – Chappo Hasn't Forgotten
    Commented Jun 30 at 6:15

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