Quora Answer: Why Do We Want Our Gods to be Good?

بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ 

The following is my answer to a Quora question: “Why do we want our gods to be good?” 

Theologically, God Created man, but philosophically man has recreated “god” in his image to justify his faults, his biases, his injustices.  It is not God Who is Good or otherwise in this case.  That is a theodetical exercise in the Divine Attributes.  This is about us justifying our wrongs in the name of “god” so that we feel better about ourselves. 

Throughout history, when tyrants and warmongers wanted to move the masses, they have always invoked the tribal superstitions to emotively move the masses to act in concert.  Over time, these tribal superstitions were replaced with organised religions.  The theology may be more sophisticated, but base desires are still the same.  It is a means to exonerate entire groups of the wrongs they inflict on others by fabricating Divine Approval.  In summary, we need our “gods” to be the good guys, because they are justification for our evils.  If our “gods” are “good”, then by extension, so are we.