How about a deal, I'll believe in the Christian God if you believe in the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Is that possible?
Why do Christians say I need to "choose" to believe in God when the most I could possibly do is lie to myself until I fool myself into thinking I really believe in God, and wouldn't an all knowing God know the difference?
2007-08-26 10:11:31 · 15 answers · asked by lindsey p 5 in Society & Culture ➔ Religion & Spirituality
batgirl: ok deal
2007-08-26 10:19:13 · update #1
No, you can not choose to believe in something that you just don't see as making sense. To those who believe in Jesus, the spaghetti monster just doesn't make sense. to an Atheist, God just doesn't make sense. To a Muslim, Jesus as God's Son doesn't make sense. To a Jew, Jesus as the Messiah doesn't make sense. You get my drift.
Besides that, most people think that they are thinking for themselves when they say that they believe in their religion. Had I been paying attention in Sunday school, I could be brainwashed as those who believe are. I truly only respect those believers who were raised to believe something, but in turn have decided that they choose to believe in something else.
2007-08-26 10:24:16 · answer #1 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
If I could choose, maybe I would have chosen to be Christian because I wouldn't have to constantly explaining my lack of "faith". Following the herd sure is a lot easier than following your conscious. But if I did "chose to believe", I'd be a hypocrite because I really DON'T believe and I'd be faking it for the sake of social conformity/acceptance.
I think I'll stay true to my beliefs - or rather, lack thereof.
2007-08-26 17:19:21 · answer #2 · answered by 222 Sexy 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
You are correct. As the recently released letters from Mother Theresa show, many devout Christians have serious doubts about ther own basic religious beliefs. They want to believe, they say they believe, but in their heart they still may not really believe, because belief is not a choice.
2007-08-26 17:28:16 · answer #3 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
No, you can't, unless you choose to submerge yourself into the cult. You can't brainwash yourself on your own, but with others running around constantly reinforcing the delusion you can easily allow yourself to become deluded. The trick is, you have to buy into what they're saying and reject all evidence to the contrary. I wasn't successfully able to do it. I just couldn't keep my mind turned off long enough to stop picking apart the sermons and silliness spoken by the believers I surrounded myself with while courting my wife. I tried. It just didn't work. But others have been successful at this (or so I've heard).
2007-08-26 18:06:31 · answer #4 · answered by Anonymous · 3⤊ 0⤋
Your question could easily be asked in response to Pascal's Wager. On a conscious level one can't simply "choose" to believe.
This begs the question "What makes one believe"?
2007-08-26 18:47:36 · answer #5 · answered by ♨UFO♨ 4 · 1⤊ 0⤋
I think it might be because they choose to believe in it. A lot of Christians, I think, "believe in belief" -- so they claim to believe something, but when you offer some kind of test of what they believe, they aren't interested (for example, a double-blind test of the efficacy of prayer).
There are true believers, of course, but I think a lot of them "choose" to believe something that just ain't so, to paraphrase Mark Twain's definition of "faith."
2007-08-26 17:19:25 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 4⤊ 0⤋
I don't think you can choose to believe. I think you can only choose to NOT believe, but belief itself isn't a choice, it's taught form early childhood on or later some say that "God came unto them" and they knew, but that isn't a choice either. If their God came, then they didn't choose that.
Though I doubt he came in the first place. The human brain works in mysterious and funny ways!
2007-08-26 17:19:12 · answer #7 · answered by Maria - Godmother II of the AM 4 · 0⤊ 2⤋
No! Each of us has our own path that we were born to follow, and God has never expected or even wanted us to all believe in the same thing. Those who think that their path is the only true one are deluding themselves and harming others in the process! *sm*
2007-08-26 18:18:59 · answer #8 · answered by LadyZania 7 · 2⤊ 1⤋
no...you either do or you don't. you cannot make yourself believe in anything.
just because i tell you that i have felt the presence of ghosts that doesn't mean that you will automatically believe in ghosts. some things have to be experienced to be believed.
some people will tell me that what i've really felt are demons, because they themselves do not believe. they cannot make themselves believe in ghosts.
same principal
2007-08-26 18:04:35 · answer #9 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋
I'll make a deal with you. I already respect your nonbelief. I don't question it, either. Want to do the same for me?
I won't try to change you. You do the same.
You believe in anything you want to, but let me do the same in peace.
Thanks!
2007-08-26 17:17:16 · answer #10 · answered by batgirl2good 7 · 7⤊ 1⤋