People believe what they want to believe, gather a bunch of people who want to believe the same thing and then believe the same thing even if confronted with evidence or proof of the opposite of their belief being true. Suppose there is a group of atheists. Also suppose there is God. Now if God came and stood in front of an atheist community, they would shout in one voice, "God does not exist." "You are a fake" or something like that. They would not be the least moved even if God poured his wrath over them. They would give some other justification, but will not believe in God.
Though I have given the example of atheism, this is true of religion, not atheism. Confronted by evidence that God does not exist, religion gives innumerable justifications for the pointless suffering in the world...it's for your own good, it's for the sins in your previous life, it's God's will, and so on.
It's also true of everyday life. We believe a bunch of soothing lies about life, work and destiny that we read in books and watch in the movies. Then we join the people who have read the books and seen the movies that we have and think that our common belief is the truth. Today, the necessary characteristic for something to qualify as truth is simply that it is believed in by the people around us.
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