I called a friend who is a believer...

[MTL]

So you're saying you just stopped believing, exactly how's that work?

GC

Belief is not subject to the will.  You can't choose to believe or not to believe something.  You have to be convinced internally.  If you are not, you cannot choose to believe.  If you are, you cannot choose not to believe.

Exactly.

I'd love to believe in God, in Heaven, in Jesus.

I'd love to believe in Santa Claus, too.

I just can't.

I guess people like GC would prefer that we pretend we still Believe, anyway;
and if we find Belief impossible, keep it to ourselves,

since they think non-belief is a deliberate choice
...and a conscious, irresponsible choice for evil, at that.

of course, there's a word for that kind of "pretending":  It's called DECEIT.

And I thought Satan was supposed to be the Father of Lies.

One more example of how Religion practices Cognitive Dissonance:

Making you feel responsible for committing the sin of Honesty;
since the only "truth" they're willing to acknowledge is their own.