There is no Ceiling Cat.

God is the name we give to our worst impulses and the things we can’t explain.

The universe is random and cruel. Bad things happen to good people. And it doesn't make sense. The thought that the universe is random and cruel and things don’t make sense is terrifying. So we make up God to blame it all on. “It's God’s will”, we say, because the alternative, accepting that the world is random and cruel and bad things happen to good people and it doesn’t make sense is too much to accept for most people. Hence, the illusion of God. It frees us to pretend that the universe isn’t random and cruel. But it’s our invention to keep us from going insane. God doesn’t actually exist. It’s just a construct to keep us from killing ourselves in despair.

Additionally, God is the name we give to the mysterious force that ordains the horrible ways we act so that we don’t have to blame ourselves for being horrible racist sexist assholes. Our racist tendencies aren’t ourselves being fucking despicable; it's God. God ordains that white males run the world, and everyone bows down to us. God says women are inferior, so men should rule over them. God is the repository of all the horrible instincts we have.

Accepting that there is no God is the beginning of sanity. If you accept that the universe is random and cruel, then the only acceptable response is to practice kindness. If the universe is going to inflict its worst on everyone, then the only way of dealing with that is to refuse to pile on. Be kind. Be generous.

Some great philosopher probably came up with this first. It probably has a name. I have no idea. I’m not a philosophy student. All I know is that kindness and generosity is the only rational response to a cruel, indifferent, and random universe. Because if the universe is all those things, then the only thing that makes life worth living are the things that say no, that’s not acceptable, we’re not going to pile on. We’re going to do what we can to ameliorate the randomness and cruelty that makes up the universe.

It’s hard to accept this. But it’s the only explanation that makes sense to me. We made God because the alternative is to accept that we and the universe are horrible.