Choosing to/not to Believe? Not Possible?

[Mystic]

Love and hate is often involved if we can accept something proven to be true or not.

[JairCrawford]

I actually greatly respect and commend your aversion to being dogmatic. It's something I am working on in my own Christian faith.

As for what I would recommend? I... how do I do this without getting preachy? I don't wanna get all stereotypical preachy on y'all. I guess I'll just honesty share from my viewpoint and experience. I'll start of bluntly; the scientific method isn't involved at all. I am very charismatic and revivalist, which means I believe that healing, miracles, signs and wonders, speaking in tongues, up and to even the raising of the dead, can, and still do happen today. Not scientific at all. Completely and utterly supernatural. So my honest advice to anyone seeking God is, look in the mysteries and the supernatural places, not within the realm of logic and understanding.

Now I know that this is like, the absolute ANTI-THESIS of rationality and skepticism. And believe me there are many denominations of Christians that even disagree with these views, but this is honestly my worldview, and thus an honest answer to your question from the lens of my worldview.

If those healings, miracles, signs and wonders are *real*, they can be documented and studied. The method of such study is the scientific method. If nothing else, science would be able to show such events do occur and that we have no current explanation for them.

Sorry, logic and understanding are what it requires to believe something.

Naturally we will disagree on the conclusion for we look at the same information with completely different worldview lenses. Nevertheless, I find your response highly intriguing, because, I've heard it before! Only not from an atheist, but from fellow Christians with a cessationist viewpoint. (Don't get me wrong here I'm not by any means saying you're acting like the religious or anything like that, just making an observation and thinking out loud.) When I debate with cessationists (Christians that are fervently sure that the gifts of the Holy Spirit ceased after the Bible was completed), they make the same argument that miracles are not documented therefore there is no evidence.

This is legitimately intriguing to me!

All differences aside, I am loving the discussion so far.

[robvalue]

If I wanted to radically alter my beliefs in short order, I think the only way to do this would be to tamper with my brain. This could be anything from consuming intoxicants/hallucinogenics to surgery.

[surreptitious57]

One cannot just choose what to believe / not to believe because free will is not absolute. There has to be emotional or logical justification in order to provide foundation for the belief / non
belief in question. This foundation is what gives the belief / non belief rigour and it is generally why it is held very strongly unless it is superseded by an opposing belief / non belief with an
even stronger emotional or logical justification for it. And this is true of all types of belief / non belief and therefore not just applies to the religious but also to the political and philosophical

[Mystic]

Love of God will hold on to proofs of God and cling to certainty of him, while hate towards his proofs and way and the holy sacred name of his, will make people oppose proofs. It's a choice.

[surreptitious57]

Love of God will hold on to proofs of God and cling to certainty of him while hate towards his proofs and way and the holy sacred name of his will make people oppose proofs

You cannot prove the metaphysical or non falsifiable exist so the proofs for Gods existence are not actually real
It has nothing to do with love or hate but with the lack of deductive logic to prove that which cannot be proven

[LastPoet]

Love of God will hold on to proofs of God and cling to certainty of him, while hate towards his proofs and way and the holy sacred name of his, will make people oppose proofs. It's a choice.

Your rethoric is warlike just as your imagined god is. You can't stand for what others believe or disbelieve. It tells me much about what you are.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

OP, I don't care what you believe. All I ever ask is "Can you prove any god or gods exist." I get the same BS all the time, all thoroughly debunked, yet all present as original and well-thought-out. I wasn't raised in a religious household, so I wasn't programmed to believe. Saved me endless hassles later in life.

[Angrboda]

Love of God will hold on to proofs of God and cling to certainty of him, while hate towards his proofs and way and the holy sacred name of his, will make people oppose proofs. It's a choice.

Are you saying that love and hatred are a choice? Seems to me those are simply responses to stimuli. I'd like to see some psychological research to back up your belief.

[Mystic]

Love of God will hold on to proofs of God and cling to certainty of him, while hate towards his proofs and way and the holy sacred name of his, will make people oppose proofs. It's a choice.

Are you saying that love and hatred are a choice?  Seems to me those are simply responses to stimuli.  I'd like to see some psychological research to back up your belief.

They are a choice.