(December 13, 2015 at 10:35 am)Anomalocaris Wrote:(December 12, 2015 at 8:29 pm)Evie Wrote: Actually it's never possible to choose what to believe. You're either compelled and convinced or you're not. A belief is like a lever that gets pulled when reality (or what you think is reality, even if it's complete nonsense) hits.I think you are grossly oversimplifying and idealizing the thought process involved in deciding what to believe. Humans first decide what their objectives are in embracing the concept of evidence. That that objective may not be to form the most predictive model of reality come hell or high water. That objective could very well be as in cases of wormy theists like wooter, drich, and their ilk, to maximize self importance, or minimize emotional discomfort. Each of which is susceptible to a countless array of manifestations upon standard of evidence as well as willingness to embrace cognitive dissonance and intellectual dishonesty. Downstream of this process there then appears multiple other points in which individual decisions can be made regarding the precise Degree of intellectual dishonesty, evidence denial or fabrication, and cognitive dissonance to embrace.
You can influence what you believe to a certain extent by deliberately only looking for evidence that supports a certain belief you already hold, and not looking for anything that does: I.e. intentional confirmation bias. But once you see the evidence and you're convinced by it, it's too late. You're either compelled and convinced or you're not.
The process you idealized does not remove decision from belief. What it is is the end result of a string of but one of the countless possible permutation of multiple decisions.
As I said, once faced with what one genuinely believes is evidence, regardless of any cognitive biases one has, one cannot help but believe what one considers to be evidence. When you truly believe something that means you think that it corresponds to reality. That's what belief is. Daniel Dennett talks of belief in belief for instance, which is very different to actual belief. Many theists don't even believe what they say they believe, I'm talking about actual belief: And, ultimately, actual belief is not a choice. One can influence it to an extent through cognitive biases, indirectly... but I already covered that.