Can you choose to believe - genuinely & completely - anything at all that you want to believe?

Question

Even if it's something ridiculous like a 200 foot tall hot-pink panda bear who speaks in English and communicates using only limericks?

Even if it's something logically impossible like a "three sided square"?

I'm talking about a reasonable, sane person not under the influence of any hard drugs, you sneaky fish!

Why are people confusing 2D with 3D? Oi vey.

Answer 1

I do. I choose not to believe the hogwash that most of my neighbors and friends believe. Is non-belief a belief?

Answer 2

Well you can, in a way fool yourself into believing just about anything..but it's just wishful thinking.. Take me for example, when I was younger I wanted so bad to believe in Unicorns, so I did. Even though in the back of my mind I knew that in all likelihood they did not actually exist I could imagine they did and if I blurred the lines a little between imagination and reality I could believe they really did exist. Now though as I have gotten older and learned so much more I know that Unicorns only exist in my imagination, and thats just as good as really existing for me, I don't have to believe I can imagine and be satisfied with that. For some people who are able to blur the lines between reality and imagination, you can believe just about anything. My wishful belief in Unicorns in my youth stemmed from the fact that my first and most beloved stuffed animal was a Unicorn, I actually believed she was a real Unicorn and I imagined that when I slept she came to life, and that when I was sick she could heal me if only I believed. So from that experience alone I understand how you can believe in something as outlandish as a stuffed unicorn with a purple mane and tail that comes alive at night and heals all ills. Not much different than a hot pink panda who speaks in limericks now is it? The fact remains that anyone can believe anything, no matter how outlandish if they can only fool themselves.. but the catch is you can't believe in anything like that when you finally grow up and let go of wishful thinking, define the difference between reality and imagination and question all there is to question. Part of me is still that little girl who believes in Unicorns and wishes it to be true, the other part of me is this grown up girl who knows that no amount of wishful thinking or imagination will make somthing exist when it doesn't.... and knows that no belief should be based on wishful thinking..

Answer 3

I believe that I can see/believe a good many things. But I recognise that many of them are only true in a similar way to dreams being true. Doesn't mean they're untrue, but simply that they are different. They're very unlikely every to have a material basis for them.

Being able to manipulate visualisations is what the magical technique of visualisation is all about. eg there are some problems which are easier dealt with in the realm of visualisation than in the physical realm (Think dream-therapy, and even problem solving using a spider chart!)

The less out of step any visualisation is to "normality" the easier it is to generate. It's also easier to maintain...

Although visualisation concentrates on seeing things, it doesn't have to be limited to sight. Can also be hearing smelling etc. I recon there's an "abstract sense", which I can't describe very well, but has something to do with the "feeling" that square's "have", compared to that which triangles "have".
maybe it's something to with http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia

I've never yet successfully visualised a three sided square (it's an oxymoron), but I'll occasional try, because by trying to do so, and failing, I still learn something.

Not per se what you're on about, but I sense it ties in somehow...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magical_thinking

Answer 4

A two-hundred-foot panda bear
With intelligence awesome and rare,
Sat down in a nook
With his Mac Powerbook
And invented the Three Sided Square.

Answer 5

Once you've been forcefully spoon fed an idea enough, you start to believe it as true. If everyone around you believe that such a square exists, then you'd become less and less skeptical of the idea, and eventually start believing it somewhat, no matter how much your logical mind would refuse the idea. Our social instincts take over.

Answer 6

Eh. In two dimensions a three-sided square is impossible. I can't speak on its feasibility from a dimension I can't perceive, but I would presume that at the first dimension, a square would only have one side. At the second dimension, it would appear to only have three until you walked around and saw the other side.

I'm not confusing anything with anything. I'm merely pointing out that even from dimensions which we -can- perceive, there are problems with the 'square always having four sides' argument. I'm pointing out that from higher dimensions, it may be self-evident that a square only has three sides, and we could not know that without perceiving from the..say 7th dimension.

Answer 7

I've really thought about this a lot... and I think it's as close to impossible as impossible can be without applying exactly what the theists ask of everyone ad nausea.... In order to believe, you'd have to appeal to your sense of faith... wishfulness... and hope... Any of these, (since they are essentially all the same thing,) coupled with a blindly-raving determination to get something out of nothing 'might' cause one to believe what he once found unbelievable.

Frankly, it's a lot easier to simply trust your senses and your ability to trust by observation only that which is readily available --- more than likely it's the real truth anyhow.

Doesn't it seem silly to expend energy attempting to force square pegs into round holes.? It's both silly and a tad wacko, if you ask me.

http://i209.photobucket.com/albums/bb62/Randall_Fleck/WKClifford_newGIF.gif
[][][] r u randy? [][][]
.

Answer 8

Well, I remember the Red Queen used to believe up to six impossible things before breakfast. I don't have the talent, myself. That's one of the reasons why I'm an atheist.

Answer 9

A 200-ft tall hot-pink panda bear who speaks in English and communicates in limericks would be AWESOME.

That's one helluva carnival prize!

Answer 10

Not really.

Human reason is the spark of the divine within us. It is the our capacity to know the truth of things.

One thing that make us human is our ability to think our way through to convictions (or strong beliefs). So reason and faith cannot be in conflict.

True faith
+ Is reasonable faith
+ Makes sense
+ Can be proposed as reasonable to others

With love in Christ.

Answer 11

Don't you think at some point you would know that you were lying to yourself?
I mean think about this-whats the point of choosing something, and holding on to it after you figure out that is is not true.