(August 31, 2015 at 12:02 pm)robvalue Wrote: Belief isn't a choice, so by this criteria no one has any control over whether they can or can't be a true christian. I'm instantly out of the running, and there's nothing I can do about it. People can choose to assess all the evidence, but they can't choose to believe something they don't believe, or vice versa. This is headed for the calvanist view.
For example, I can't choose to believe I can fly, no matter how much I might want it to be true. I'd have to really mess with my brain in some serious ways to achieve such a belief. I could probably still convince myself of that more readily than I could convince myself there was a man walking about who was the son of god.
You can choose to say you believe it, of course. Why this would be impressive to anyone, and especially god, I don't know!
And such is an example of a narrow mind.
I flew to boston, NYC, Philly, Miami and several other places just in the last year or so. The problem with 'narrow minds' are that they lock in a singular definition or concept and will not allow any expansion of that definition or concept. Which is why I said you provided an excellent example of a narrow minded person at work. Your idea of flight is that of a bee or bird, and in your example you would not or could not allow any other ways of flight to be possible. The problem is there are many different ways man can acheave flight. just like their is a different way to find God outside of what you tried... But like with your example of flight your mind is already made up, and it will not be change? Why do you hold fast to your confirmation bias? Because it allows you to live/justify the life you think you want to live.
God will gladly see you to Hell before intrupting your confirmation bias. That said if you can look past your own self supporting arguments you will indeed see that the world is larger than the narrow definations you provided on it.
