1988, Mary E. Carreiro, Modern Religion & The Destruction of Spiritual Capacity[1], page 78:
Sometimes the Christians talk to their imaginary friend, Jesus, when they are alone.
2008, Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation[2], page 52:
But what was God doing while Katrina laid waste to their city? Surely He heard the prayers of those elderly men and women who fled the rising waters for the safety of their attics, only to be slowly drowned there. […] These poor people died talking to an imaginary friend.
2008, Charles Colson, Garry Polle, The Faith: Participant's Guide[3], page 12:
In his book Letter to a Christian Nation, he wondered what God was doing when hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and how sad it was that people there died praying to an “imaginary friend.”
2009, Bernard Sarachek, An Atheist's Testament[4], page 76:
The imaginary friend called God, saint, or savior is nothing more than a self-serving mirror of what the believer wishes to believe in the first place.
2009, S. C. Hitchcock, DISbelief 101: A Young Person's Guide to Atheism[5], page 119:
(This is ironic in that Darwin, with his long beard and deep-set eyes, looks a bit like the imaginary friend of many a believer.)
2011, Elmer Thomas Williams Jr., Whatever Happen To Common Sense?: Just Tell It Like It Is[6], page 156:
Do you hear voices that aren't really there? Like, oh, I don't know, your imaginary friend, Jesus? Telling you to start a war in the Middle East?
So Muhammad had special privileges such as numerous wives from his imaginary friend Allah that other Islamic believers were not privy to.
2013, H. Valencia, Return of Halley's Comet[8], page 130:
Mississippi and Ruben Booksley go off to pray to their imaginary friend or something...?
2015, Marshall Brain, “What If We Taught Students That Religion Is Absurd?”, in American Atheist[9], volume 53, number 3, page 20:
The religiosity of America fascinates me. I am intrigued by the idea of millions of people in an advanced nation believing that they have a “relationship” with an imaginary friend and believing that this imaginary friend is answering their prayers.
2015, Daniel C. Dennett, Linda LaScola, quoting Tony, Caught in the Pulpit: Leaving Belief Behind[10]:
I guess you could say I lost my prayer life. But to me it was just another form of masturbation. It was just self-centered. I mean, what's more self-centered than praying to an imaginary friend about what you need?
2018, John Carlshausen, Religion Delusion[11], page 42:
It is not normal to pray to an imaginary friend in the sky in the same way it is not normal to pray to a fence post.
2018, Mark Romel, The Cosmic Jest: The Joke's On Us[12], unnumbered page:
Oh no, their imaginary friend – “God” – is going to get me and send me to the land of Imaginary Punishment.
