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.
We are the first species capable of self-annihilation.
Nobody can acquire honor by doing what is wrong.
No Hindu community, however low, will touch cow's flesh. On the other hand, there is no community which is really an Untouchable community which has not something to do with the dead cow. Some eat her flesh, some remove the skin, some manufacture articles out of her skin and bones.
Mind is consciousness which has put on limitations. You are originally unlimited and perfect. Later you take on limitations and become the mind.
Our lives can only be lived forward and understood backwards. Living a life and understanding it occupy different dimensions.
He thought that in the history of the world it might even be that there was more punishment than crime but he took small comfort from it.
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