The Will to Believe

http://www.princeton.edu/~grosen/puc/phi203/will.html

James discusses three cases of this sort, of which the religious case
is the third. One of these is a very special case — the sort of case
in which, as James says, faith in the fact can help create the fact.
Where the fact in question is something to be wished for, in these
cases, James believes, faith is obviously reasonable.
---SPSmith