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Does the author of "Life of Pi" want us to think that belief in God is like belief in a fantasy?

Not necessarily a like a belief in a fantasy, but more like belief in a better story, that makes life here much more enjoyable and sensical.   One major point of his book was that religion is a really, really great story to explain our existence, just like Pi's animal story was a really, really great story to explain his survival at sea.  The animal story is much more humane, kind, interesting, and helpful on Pi's sanity and conscience.  Religion is a much more humane, kind, interesting and helpful explanation of our existence here on earth than simply believing that our existence was happenstance and that we are all alone, and going to die alone.  So, I'm not sure that Martel is implicating that belief in God is like belief in a fantasy, but more like a reasonable, understandable, and much more friendly route to take when thinking about our lives.  Martel loves storytelling.  He thinks that stories play a large role in our lives, and serve a very distinct purpose-to entertain, to comfort, to bolster and support-and religion is just one form of that.

I hope that those thoughts help; good luck!