[268F-LER: p. 196]
“ … what is a dream? It is the imagination unchecked by the laws of reason and sense perception. (…) I have mentioned dreams only as striking examples of the religious power of the imagination over men.” [268F-LER: p. 196]
[269F-LER: p. 196]
“ … the religious imagination is not the free imagination of the artist, but has a practical egoistic purpose, or in other words, … the religious imagination is rooted in the feeling of dependency and attaches chiefly to objects that arouse it. (…) This feeling of anxiety, of uncertainty, this fear of harm that always accompanies man, is the root of the religious imagination … .” [269F-LER: p. 196]
[270F-LER: p. 198]
“ … the gods are creatures of the imagination, but of an imagination fired by man’s feeling of dependency, his afflictions and egoism; they are creatures not only of the imagination but also of emotion, especially the emotions of hope and fear.” [270F-LER: p. 198]
[271F-LER: p. 200]
“ … religion has essentially a practical aim and foundation; the drive that gives rise to religion, its ultimate foundation, is the striving for happiness, and if this is an egoistic drive, it follows that the ultimate foundation of religion is egoism. (…) … once it is proved that God owes His existence exclusively to man’s striving for happiness, but that religion satisfies this striving only in the imagination, it necessarily follows that man can seek to satisfy this striving by other than religious ways and means.” [271F-LER: p. 200]
[272F-LER: p. 202]
“ … it is not only his own obtuseness which makes a man see all things in terms of himself, not only his ignorance of nature, and not only his imagination, that lead him to personify everything; his temperament as well, his self-love, his egoism or striving for happiness is still another reason why he attributes the actions and phenomena of nature to thinking, personal beings who live and will like men … .” [272F-LER: p. 202]
[273F-LER: p. 204]
“ … although in theory the theists place truth above good cheer, in practice the power to provide consolation is their sole criterion of truth or untruth; they reject a doctrine as untrue because it provides no consolation, because it is not as comforting and comfortable, as flattering to human egoism, as the opposite doctrine which derives nature from a personal being who guides the course of nature in accordance with the prayers and desires of man.” [273F-LER: p. 204]
