There were a lot of gods. Gods always come in handy, they justify almost anything.
Interpretation
The quote suggests that gods or belief systems can be manipulated to rationalize behaviors and actions.
Margaret Atwood's quote reflects on the idea that the existence of multiple gods in various cultures serves as a tool for people to justify their actions and decisions. It implies that belief in deities can be conveniently employed to legitimize behavior, regardless of its moral implications, highlighting the complex relationship between faith and human nature.
In practice
During a philosophical debate on the nature of morality, one could use this quote to illustrate how beliefs can influence ethical decisions.
If I am good enough and quiet enough, perhaps after all they will let me go; but it’s not easy being quiet and good, it’s like hanging on to the edge of a bridge when you’ve already fallen over; you don’t seem to be moving, just dangling there, and yet it is taking all your strength.
I would like to believe this is a story I’m telling. I need to believe it. I must believe it. Those who can believe that such stories are only stories have a better chance. If it’s a story I’m telling, then I have control over the ending. Then there will be an ending, to the story, and real life will come after it. I can pick up where I left off.
What else can I do? Once you've gone this far you aren't fit for anything else. Something happens to your mind. You're overqualified, overspecialized, and everybody knows it. Nobody in any other game would be crazy enough to hire me. I wouldn't even make a good ditch-digger, I'd start tearing apart the sewer-system, trying to pick-axe and unearth all those chthonic symbols - pipes, valves, cloacal conduits... No, no. I'll have to be a slave in the paper-mines for all time.
We love each other, that’s true whatever it means, but we aren’t good at it; for some it’s a talent, for others only an addiction.
I've learned quite a lot, over the years, by avoiding what I was supposed to be learning.
Knowing too much about other people puts you in their power, they have a claim on you, you are forced to understand their reasons for doing things and then you are weakened.
Religion increasingly is tending to degenerate into a decent formula wherewith to embellish a comfortable life.
He knew how to say many false things that were like true sayings.
If we don’t want to define ourselves by things as superficial as our appearances, we’re stuck with the revolting alternative of being judged by our actions.
Thus passing through the infinite varieties of space we reach the Divine space which is absolutely free from all dimensions and constitutes the meeting point of all infinities.
God hath work to do in this world; and to desert it because of its difficulties and entanglements, is to cast off His authority. It is not enough that we be just, that we be righteous, and walk with God in holiness; but we must also serve our generation, as David did before he fell asleep. God hath a work to do; and not to help Him is to oppose Him.
The community stagnates without the impulse of the individual. The impulse dies away without the sympathy of the community.
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