Playing "God's Advocate"

[MineralMan]

We hear the phrase "playing the Devil's advocate" a lot. It means someone arguing the negative side to make a point. Generally, it doesn't mean that the person playing that role is, him or herself, evil. It's just a rhetorical method.

I find it odd that the opposite term, "playing God's advocate" isn't also in use in religious discussions. That rhetorical equivalent is in common use wherever religion is discussed. People commonly set religion up to be a universally good thing for societies and cultures and argue for religion as a remedy for the flaws and negative characteristics of people.

However, we don't refer to that, even though we use the other phrase fairly often. I notice people "playing God's advocate" frequently here in DU's Religion Group. We just don't mention that rhetorical device.