Men rarely (if ever) manage to dream up a god superior to themselves. Most gods have the manners and morals of a spoiled child.

Heinlein’s remark is a skeptical, anthropological jab at the tendency to create gods in humanity’s own image. If divinity is imagined by human minds, the resulting deity often reflects human limitations—especially immaturity, vanity, and caprice—rather than an ethically or intellectually “superior” being. The line also critiques certain portrayals of gods in myth and religion as demanding praise, punishing dissent, and enforcing arbitrary rules, behaviors likened to a “spoiled child.” In Heinlein’s broader oeuvre, such skepticism aligns with his recurring interest in self-reliance, rational inquiry, and suspicion of authority—especially authority justified by unverifiable supernatural claims.