[Bodhi]

Sometimes there is a moral argument against the existence of God. The argument says there's just way too much evil in the world for a deity to have created it all for us to deal with (we could learn the same life lessons with significantly less evil, I think). Of course, the excluded alternative is that the deity gets a kick out of our suffering.

Nietzsche speculated that smiling is disapproved of in tribal cultures because it might anger the Gods. The tribe itself understands the pleasure that comes from inflicting cruelty (on other tribes), and believes it would be a mistake to deprive God of this same pleasure.