“An atheist is very often an atheist because he cannot stand the idea that God is watching him all the time, that there is this constant all-seeing eye prying on your most private life and that there's this—you know how when you're a child in school and you’re writing something or doing arithmetic and the teacher walks around the class and looks over your shoulder? Nobody wants to be watched like that, even someone who's good at writing or at arithmetic doesn't want somebody looking over their shoulder while they're doing it. It puts you off. It bugs you. So the idea of the Lord God who is watching us all the time, who is judging everything that we do, puts people off and they can't stand it. So better be an atheist to get rid of teacher.”

— Alan Watts, Buddhism As Dialogue