imaginary friend

plural imaginary friends

1. human sciencesA nonexistent person, the subject of a friendship or other interpersonal relationship taking place in the imagination rather than in physical reality.
2. broadlyderogatoryfigurativelysarcasticA deity or higher power, particularly the Abrahamic God.

   Sometimes the Christians talk to their imaginary friend, Jesus, when they are alone.

   1988, Mary E. Carreiro, Modern Religion & The Destruction of Spiritual Capacity, page 78

   2 more examples

   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, Sam Harris, Letter to a Christian Nation, page 52

   (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.)

   2009, S. C. Hitchcock, DISbelief 101: A Young Person's Guide to Atheism, page 119