Philosophically speaking; Why do people tell me that I can choose to believe in god?

Yeah, I've had this debate with a good friend many times. He's convinced that belief is a choice, but as far as I'm concerned it's only a choice insofar as it is willful ignorance. But then, to me, ignorance leads to an absence of choice. Know what I mean? Like, you can choose to ignore science and deny the fact that you simply don't have all of the answers to the universe (yet), but once you've done that you're pretty much stuck believing in age-old myths like the Bible, because you can't imagine any other possibilities...