I agree, truth does not have to lead to nihilism. It is only when it does that belief can help. Deciding to be a relevant member of a progressive society is a belief. You cannot arrive at that decision through science because science deals in explanations, not meaning.

Belief can be a comfort, but that isn't what I'm referring to here. Belief in this context is for stability. It is the ground on which you can begin to act. According to a strict scientific view of the world, the ground doesn't even exist, it is (like every atom) made up of mostly empty space. This does not prevent us from walking on it. Belief works in a similar way. The content of the belief may not exist, but in practice, it works. Through faith, we walk without fear of falling through empty space.

I agree with the theorist Camille Paglia who once said that 'Western culture is a distortion of reality. But reality should be distorted; that is, imaginatively amended'. It is this 'tension and antagonism in Western metaphysics' that has brought us to 'great heights'.