Sorry, by your "comfort" I meant only the benefit you had already described, which I understood to mean that belief in your deity comforted you. I use asterisks instead of html out of laziness. Didn't mean to upset you or assume anything about you, I was just going on what you said.

You say yourself that you "chose" to believe, out of self-preservation.
Again, if you had had a rational reason for the *belief* you wouldn't have had to choose; you could have come to a logical conclusion.

What you are describing is a rational reason for *making the choice* and *not* for the belief.

You rationally decided to believe in something for which there is no rational basis for belief. That makes your choice rational, I agree.

It does not make your belief rational, however.