Belief

[Mister Agenda]

It's like that story about the two wolves. You can't just believe anything you want instantly, but if you feed a belief it will grow stronger and if you starve it, it will grow weaker. It would take a lot of effort, maybe years worth, to get myself to believe one of the various versions of God is real, but if I was determined enough, I'm sure I could convince myself eventually. It would be much easier if instead of getting out of Christianity entirely I was just sort of 'lapsed' but still broadly and weakly a believer. I have a hurdle of overcoming all the things that combined to convince me that God is probably not real.

I suppose at a certain level of belief, it's more important to be true to what you believe than to make any serious effort to get into it or out of the state of believing it.  

Not without a good reason...if you're already convinced that something is true, there's not much motivation to convince yourself that it's false. Something has to change to prompt you to take the journey of trying to convince yourself of something you don't think is true.

Frankly, I've seen it happen most often due to the influence of one's significant other, which means there's an emotional motivation to resolve basic differences if one or both are very serious about the belief in question and about having a harmonious relationship.

---

There may well be an 'origin of all things'. I think it's probable that if there is, it will turn out to be natural causes, like everything else so far, and not a person, let alone a deity.

I recommend you add something to your definition to distinguish it from quantum foam or string theory hypotheses about the origin of the cosmos. Unless you're cool with worshipping an impersonal natural phenomenon, but I guarantee that quantum foam is not reaching out to give you the good feels.