Is it even possible to force yourself to believe something when you know it to be false, simply because the consequences of being wrong are so irretrievably horrible.

Thought Experiment: A fundamentalist Christian and Muslim are both afraid to question their faith because each is convinced failure to believe means an eternity of agony in hell, while the fruits of faith are an endless summer in paradise. It must be clear that at least one of them is mistaken. But what if they both are?

One philosopher once pointed out that unquestioning faith is better than skepticism because the consequences if mistaken about being a skeptic are unnacceptable, while if you're faith is wrong no harm is done.
Believing something "just in case" must be the ultimate self-delusion and intellectual cowardice.