Is "Belief" a choice?...lets talk about that.

[SolomonVII]

SolomonVII,
re: "That is why I specifically limited myself to saying that only non-frivolous belief can be a choice..."


If beliefs can be obtained by simply choosing to have them, then the issue in question shouldn't matter.

But ok, how about right now, while you are reading this, pick a non-frivolous issue/thing that you currently believe - are convinced - isn't true or doesn't exist and choose to believe that it is true or that it does exist.

BTW, as jason_delisle touched on, believing in a supreme being is as frivolous to many as believing in leprechauns.

Believing something that you know isn't true is true defines frivolity.

I think a Catholic axiom is that faith and truth cannot contradict.

 

[rstrats]

SolomonVII,
re: "Believing something that you know isn't true is true defines frivolity."

OK, how about right now, while you are reading this, pick something that you don't KNOW to be untrue, but that you BELIEVE is untrue and then believe - be convinced - that it IS true.

 

[Received]

Greeting everyone,

I just wanted to start off by saying that the purpose of this thread is not to try to influence your beliefs or lack of belief but have a conversation about belief in general and how many Christians take belief for granted. Many Christians emphasize free will and that we can use this free will to freely choose to believe or not to believe in God. But is “belief” really a choice and can we truly use this “free will” to choose to believe or not to believe? I can’t say that I agree. I don’t think anyone can simply choose to believe anything….they either believe or not believe something. Here is an example. If I told you that in order to be saved you had to believe the sky was pink and purple polka dotted. You may look me in the face and tell me “yes, I believe it”. Deep down, you truly want to believe it because you want to be saved. But can you really believe it? Let us look at what the bible says about “belief” and salvation.

John 14:12-14 ESV

“Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes in me will also do the works that I do; and greater works than these will he do, because I am going to the Father. Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. If you ask me anything in my name, I will do it.


John 20:29 ESV

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”


John 3:16 ESV

“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life.


Romans 10:9-10 ESV

Because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.

So if belief is not a choice, the simple act of believing in Jesus is really not that simple. So how can a Christian truly convince and unbeliever to believe? Please cast your vote in the poll. Thank you.

Great quotes, but I think the OP is based on a false premise, in that belief is understood in a fundamentally different way in the Bible, where it's a synonym for faith (techncially "to believe" is the infinitive form of the nominal "faith", which is why the best translations rarely if ever have "belief" in nominal form), than it is in our current society, where it means an attempted representation of reality.

So the first, Biblical, sense of belief (faith) is definitely a choice; faith is a daily choice, hence "I die daily" (1 Cor 15:31). But the secular understanding of belief is also a choice, but an indirect one: you can't directly determine what you hold to be true or false (or what you value), but you can do so indirectly through your openness to truth.

 

[SolomonVII]

SolomonVII,
re: "Believing something that you know isn't true is true defines frivolity."

OK, how about right now, while you are reading this, pick something that you don't KNOW to be untrue, but that you BELIEVE is untrue and then believe - be convinced - that it IS true.

Why would I do that?

I have tried as hard as I can to explain that when I say chose to believe I am not saying chosing to believe in what I have already determined to be untrue.
That treats truth and belief as frivolous.

I cannot explain that any better than I already have.

 

[rstrats]

SolomonVII,

Arrrrrgggg - In the immortal words of Stuther Martin: "What we have here is a failure to communicate".

 

[Kristen Davis]

Yes belief i a choice you choose to make according to how you feel about a particular issue. For instance if you feel as though you need religion to help you through a difficult time in your life then your basing your beliefs off of the fact that religion is the only way to help you get your most difficult points in life. Also belief is a choice because belief is supposed to be something you decide as an individual based on the way you have lived growing up and the moral values that your parents instilled in you.

 

[Open Heart]

Yes belief i a choice you choose to make according to how you feel about a particular issue. For instance if you feel as though you need religion to help you through a difficult time in your life then your basing your beliefs off of the fact that religion is the only way to help you get your most difficult points in life. Also belief is a choice because belief is supposed to be something you decide as an individual based on the way you have lived growing up and the moral values that your parents instilled in you.

How is that a choice? You either believe something or you don't.

 

[rstrats]

Open Heart,
re: "How is that a choice? You either believe something or you don't."


Absolutely. Beliefs cannot be consciously chosen.

 

[SummaScriptura]

We have a hard time seeing ourselves clear of millennia of deductive speculation and our generation's version of syncretism, (a problem in every generation), which involves our attempts to harmonize Biblical truth with our cultural assumptions.

We ask the question, 'which type of cheese is the moon made from, bleu or swiss'? and puzzle ourselves that we cannot agree upon the answer.

We are creative creatures made in the image of the uncreated Creator. God comes to us in so many ways, but extends the offer of forgiveness, restored fellowship, sonship, and partnership to each one through His word. His offer unlocks our ability to accept it. I don't comprehend this, but I believe it to be true, more true than the world I live within and with which I interact.