I’ve had a few conversations with a fellow freethinker who himself often gets confused by the notion of belief. I repeatedly state that ‘belief’ is often a bigger word for what is just simple fantasizing. I refer to religious belief as superstition or supernaturalism. It’s a leap based on a simple wish fulfillment. It’s not far off from the way in which people assert common thoughts or opinions, saying ‘I definitely think...’ when predicting something, rather than saying ‘I imagine...’ which would be more accurate.
I feel no remorse for offending someone’s ‘belief,’ moreso, because the believer is only entertaining someone else’s original idea. It is probably the reason that all of us freethinkers stand opposed to ‘belief’: it feels uncomfortable and untrue to adopt another person’s idea, to say nothing of how propaganda works on a mind.
In any case, believers ought to be called ‘make-believers’ or ‘pretenders,’ instead. Seems more accurate.