In your opinion what causes christians to believe in Jesus

[Sheldon]

Yet another Christian telling atheists what they think, feel, and believe.  If you have to deny other people's lived experiences, maybe your position isn't as strong as you think.

Sounds like a regular day in psychology to me. But I understand people think they have more agency and intention than they do, and it isn't easy parting with those intuitions.

Not really, there is some pretty longstanding research in psychology that demonstrates that as a species we are inclined to alter our beliefs, in order to conform to the majority, for a variety of reasons. It's called conformity, and is a well-documented psychological and social phenomenon. 

Since  atheism is not a belief, or a claim, it is the absence or lack of one particular belief, they seem to be  going against that trend. In many parts of the world, at no small risk as well. 

It is asinine to suggest my disbelief is a reaction to the way the deity is depicted, that hasn't stopped billions from deluding themselves after all, and since the belief is entirely subjective, one could imagine any saccharine version of a deity one wanted, if one didn't care there was no objective evidence at all that any deity or deities exist, or are even possible. I have seen Christians do this plenty of times, Jesus is love etc etc, while ignoring the rest of the bible that they don't like. According to your post above no Christian would accept the factual descriptions atheists here have offered from the bible. 

I just see no reason to delude myself.

A more troubling question is why anyone would worship something that evil, even if they believe it to be real?