José Saramago said this quote

Whether we like it or not, the one justification for the existence of all religions is death, they need death as much as we need bread to eat.

~ José Saramago

The church has never been asked to explain anything, our speciality, along with ballistics, has always been the neutralisation of the overly curious mind through faith.

~ José Saramago

... we are only ever pretending to ourselves, never to other people ...

~ José Saramago

However hard he tried, he could never manage to make himself visible to human eyes and not because he can't, since for him nothing is impossible, it's simply that he wouldn't know what face to wear when introducing himself to the beings he supposedly created and who probably wouldn't recognize him anyway. There are those who say we're very fortunate that god chooses not to appear before us, because compared with the shock we would get were such a thing to happen, our fear of death would be mere child's play. Besides, all the many things that have been said about god and about death are nothing but stories, and this is just another one.

~ José Saramago