AMMDI is an open-notebook hypertext writing experiment, authored by Mike Travers aka mtraven. It's a work in progress and some parts are more polished than others. Comments welcome! More.
Alright, that is the malatheism interpretation. A MotT interpretation would be something like, humanity can be the equal of the divine, or at least participate in the divine, but not by the techniques of the Tower (construction out of parts), but only via more organic procedures, involving growth and cultivation. It's very Christopher Alexander.
I just made up this term, which should not be confused with ts close relative maltheism. Malatheism means the stance of "god doesn't exist and he's an asshole", a pithy description I got from Phil Ford of Weird Studies, also nicely fictionalized in Yossarian and belief.
Have learned recently that I'm being illiterate (mixing greek and roman roots) and the correct term is dystheism, but "dysatheism" doesn't really work.
The notion of a malign god sounds kind of dark and edgy I guess, compared to official religion in which god is the source of all good and is pure goodness. But it also seems like simple common sense. The idea that one being could both be the creator of everything and also pure good is incoherent, unless you are prepared to deny the reality of evil. Much easier to believe in a god whose attributes include cruelty.
The malatheist position is not quite as grim as that, it does not really posit that we are prisoners in some kind of cosmic torture chamber. No, our misfortunes are due to chance, not malign agency. It's just saying that if somebody actually was responsible for this festering disaster of a world – man, what an asshole.