[skaevola]

I'm not convinced that believing in something false is always bad. For example, there's a concept in psychology called an "internal locus of control", which basically means believing that you have control over aspects of your life. It turns out that having an internal locus of control is very negatively correlated with depression, so it might be that holding these beliefs actually help people's mental states. Another example would be people turning to religious beliefs to cope with tragedy.

Anyways, I'd like to believe that the belief isn't false. I do believe we do exert some substantial control over our own destinies.