It seems like if you have to actively choose to believe, then it wouldn't be true belief. Any thoughts?
2007-07-29 11:29:52 · 8 answers · asked by Mariah 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Philosophy
I guess I always thought of belief as though sort of just knowing something.
Like falling in love. There are arranged marriages where two people who never met before grow to love each other. They CHOOSE to love each other, but they were never "in love." With belief, you can grow to believe in somthing, but would it be truly believing, as in knowing without a doubt that somthing is true?
2007-07-29 16:16:39 · update #1
Your question is at the personal heart of the free will / determinism debate. I can tell you that faith, as opposed to "mere" belief, is always aware of the possibility of being wrong, but has the courage to act on the faith anyway. The first moment of faith is one in which the choice seems inevitable, in which the distinction between choice and destiny dissolves. There's a very interesting scene along these lines in C.S. Lewis's "Perelandra", just before Ransom fights the demon-possessed scientist.
2007-07-29 11:43:33 · answer #1 · answered by Philo 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
As a child, your family introduces you to a belief system, then you enter school and are taught another belief system, if you are involved in church, you enter another belief system which may be the same or different than your parents or your school depending on your family values and type of school, then you enter the teen years and complete reshape your way of thinking trying to figure out right from wrong and what to believe. So, yes...I do think you choose to believe whatever it is you are currently believing in no matter how much others influence you because in the end it is your decision.
2007-07-29 11:42:03 · answer #2 · answered by Anonymous · 0⤊ 0⤋
To believe means to accept as true or take to be true. So if we want to find God, we have to accept (believe) that God exists. So yes, with that definition, you can choose to believe. This doesn't mean blind belief but just that the burden of proof changes from having to prove that God exists to having to prove that He doesn't.
2007-07-29 12:40:10 · answer #3 · answered by Matthew T 7 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Epistemology... A rational belief requires proof, facts, evidence, reason, etc. An irrational belief requires an act of faith.
It's your choice.
2007-07-29 15:31:33 · answer #4 · answered by Mr. Wizard 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Seems like you can.
I thought it was pretty clear O.J. killed his ex.
Sure seemed like a lot of the brothers CHOOSE to believe otherwise.
2007-07-29 11:40:47 · answer #5 · answered by Phoenix Quill 7 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Sure, you can choose to believe something..or choose not to.
2007-07-29 11:43:14 · answer #6 · answered by IslandOfApples 6 · 0⤊ 0⤋
the difinition of belief is choosing...
2007-07-29 12:05:15 · answer #7 · answered by invisible. 3 · 0⤊ 0⤋
Yes I do -as well as to disbelieve.
Then one day you discover which is genuine.
2007-07-29 11:40:01 · answer #8 · answered by Bemo 5 · 1⤊ 0⤋