Playing God

Playing God refers to someone supposedly taking on the role of God for other purposes, also referred to as apotheosis. Alleged acts of playing God may include, for example, deciding who should live or die in a situation where not everyone can be saved, and the use and development of biotechnologies such as synthetic biology and in vitro fertilisation. Usually the expression is used to invoke a precautionary principle or to suggest that someone should refrain from a controversial action. Philip Ball has argued that "playing God" is a meaningless and dangerous cliché that has no basis in theology; claiming instead, that it was adopted by theocons from the 1931 film version of Frankenstein, and has been used by journalists to refer to things they disagree with. Alexandre Erler, in response to Ball, has argued that while the phrase is not meaningless, it is extremely vague and requires further clarification for it to be useful within the context of an argument. —Introduction to the Wikipedia article "Playing God (ethics)"

This is a disambiguation page. On All The Tropes, Playing God could refer to:

Tropes

• Abstract Apotheosis
• Blasphemous Boast
  • Bigger Than Jesus
• Creating Life
  • Creating Life Is Awesome
  • Creating Life Is Bad
  • Creating Life Is Unforeseen
  • Instant AI, Just Add Water
• Dark Messiah
• Game Master, who takes the part of world-creator and director of a Tabletop RPG
• Genetic Engineering
• A God Am I
• God Guise
• Scam Religion
• Triage Tyrant, who decides "who should live or die in a situation where not everyone can be saved"
• Unwanted False Faith inverts the concept
• For an actor taking on the role of God in a production, see the examples listed under God.

Film

• Playing God (1997 film)
• Playing God (2012 film), a documentary film

Live-Action TV

• "Playing God", a second-season episode of The Dead Zone (TV series)
• "Playing God", a second-season episode of Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

Tabletop Games

• Playing Gods, a board game making light of religion