I guess I'm applying the principle of charity: you must not only kill the idea, but the worst thing that can be made from the corpse. If the consciously lying claim seems weak, maybe that's not the one Craig's making, so wombat suggested another option, which I think maps onto the Less Wrong "belief as anticipation" idea.

It's not clear that Craig is claiming that: maybe there's some other option. But the options I've got so far either don't match up to what atheists do, or are just silly (since I know I'm not consciously lying and presumably you do too).