Voltaire is famous for having said, "If God did not exist, it would be
necessary to invent Him." Saki, in his book "The Unbearable Bassington",
Chapter 13 (1912), has his character The Archdeacon say of De la
Poulett, "He spends his life explaining from his pulpit that the glory
of Christianity consists in the fact that though it is not true it has
been found necessary to invent it.".