- Gods, religions and national boundaries are absolutely imaginary. Neil Gaiman
- Maybe God is an asshole…of course not, he’s not an asshole, he’s imaginary. Louis C. K.
- You’re basically killing each other to see who’s got the better imaginary friend. Blaise Pascal
- Religious war at its simplest is killing each other over who has the best imaginary friend. Richard Jeni
- I don’t think I’ve ever prayed in my entire life, never sat and had an imaginary chat with God. Jim Jefferies
- There is not enough love and goodness in the world to permit giving any of it away to imaginary beings. Friedrich Nietzsche
- If you’re going to war over religion, now you’re just getting into a fight over who has the better imaginary friend. Richard Jeni
- We will not, therefore, lose our time praying to an imaginary god for things which our own exertions alone can procure. Francesc Ferrer i Guardia
- We shouldn’t even need the word ‘atheism’. If people didn’t invent ridiculous imaginary gods, rational people wouldn’t have to deny them. Ricky Gervais
- We have a psychological need for God — imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, confidant — and the need has to be satisfied whether God really exists or not. Richard Dawkins
- Either God can do nothing to stop catastrophes like this, or he doesn’t care to, or he doesn’t exist. God is either impotent, evil, or imaginary. Take your pick, and choose wisely. Sam Harris
- I don’t get that – people going to war over religion. I don’t know, I could see going to war over justice or democracy or even revenge. But if you’re going to war over religion, now you’re just killing people in an argument over who has the better imaginary friend. Richard Jeni
- Religion is the yeast of death cakes. It is the most awful agent on a vulnerable mind. It’s the refuge of alienated and lonely people. It’s what people had before television. It yokes people together into an imaginary world. It is just people talking to their imaginary friends, at length. I wouldn’t mind, but some of the people are world leaders. Dylan Moran
- Many of them [people who escaped religion] recounted both the terror and the relief they felt after leaving religion behind. Terror at realizing there was no longer an imaginary friend; relief that no one was looking over their shoulder any more. Several described the experience as similar to that of a child learning to go to sleep without a favorite teddy bear. Others described it as simply growing up or outgrowing the need for the imaginary friends of childhood. Darrel Ray
- Religion is unusual among divisive labels in being spectacularly unnecessary. If religious beliefs had any evidence going for them, we might have to respect them in spite of their concomitant unpleasantness. But there is no such evidence. To label people as death-deserving enemies because of disagreements about real world politics is bad enough. To do the same for disagreements about a delusional world inhabited by archangels, demons and imaginary friends is ludicrously tragic. Richard Dawkins
- Does religion fill a much needed gap? It is often said that there is a God-shaped gap in the brain which needs to be filled: we have a psychological need for God — imaginary friend, father, big brother, confessor, confidant — and the need has to be satisfied whether God really exists or not. But could it be that God clutters up a gap that we’d be better off filling with something else? Science, perhaps? Art? Human friendship? Humanism? Love of this life in the real world, giving no credence to other lives beyond the grave? Richard Dawkins
