Why is Faith/Belief a Moral Issue?

[RobbyPants]

People reject the Abrahamic deity because there is no evidence such a being exists and theists’ efforts to prove otherwise have not been compelling.  Why then is it considered a virtue to psych one’s self out and just believe in things one knows are not true? How is that good?  Why is it a moral failing to stand on one’s intellectual integrity?

Ascribing virtue or vice to one’s status as a believer makes as much sense as saying men who eat bananas are good in bed.

It's not so much an issue that Christians believe that believing in counter-factual things makes you morally superior. They believe that

• God exists
  
• God is the origin of morality
  
• God will punish you for not swearing the proper oath of fealty
  

So, it's not that they think that it is moral to believe counter-factual things, but rather that it is the highest moral good to believe this one particular counter-factual thing. It's just the logical extension of tying punishment and reward to belief in a nonfalsifiable entity.

But yeah, it is absurd, but not quite in the way that you're stating it.