"'I chose to believe in the existence of God—deliberately and consciously. This decision, however, has absolutely zero effect on the actual existence of God.'

If you know your belief isn't correlated to reality, how can you still believe it?"

It's the difference between someone who's afraid of heights standing twenty feet from a cliff and standing two inches from the cliff. The former knows what will happen if he moves over and looks down, the latter is looking down and feeling the fear.

If you tell yourself you believe in a wall, then you're less likely to worry about what's on the other side.