anything-2
Explanation
The Joke
The comic opens with a religious man stating the classic philosophical argument: "I believe in God because without God, anything is permitted." A woman challenges him: "Like murder?" He responds: "Yes, that's one." But then the woman counters with an analogy from boardgames: "I mean, in boardgames, rules are only maintained if the players all agree. Books can jump precise ranks per team. Pranks can teleport anything."
The conversation continues with the woman pointing out that "without God, the rules of these games are just a meaningless contest to see who can get the same endorphins." The man is forced to concede the parallel but pivots: "But God didn't invent any of the rules. Changing the rules is just..." The woman delivers the final blow: "Just more of my gates are open today!" -- suggesting she has been applying the "anything is permitted" philosophy to their board game the whole time, cheerfully cheating because the rules are arbitrary anyway.
The comic takes the Dostoevsky-attributed argument that morality requires God and tests it against the mundane example of board game rules, showing that humans voluntarily follow arbitrary rules all the time without divine enforcement, purely because the game is more fun that way.
The Humor
The humor comes from the collision between grand theological philosophy and the petty world of board game disputes. The "without God, anything is permitted" argument is one of the weightiest claims in moral philosophy, but the comic demonstrates that we already live in a world full of voluntarily maintained rule systems (games, sports, social norms) that function perfectly well without divine backing. The punchline reveals that the woman has been undermining the man's argument not through philosophy but by literally permitting herself to do anything in their board game -- proving his point while simultaneously showing how trivial it actually is.