Is belief in God a choice

[fr0d0]

No fr0d0, I never said that atheists or theists never change their minds, and that they stay in one stance forever...that would be ridiculous.

Apologies for the misunderstanding.

I'm telling you that it's not a matter of choice - because you couldn't exactly compare it for instance...to choosing a flavour of crisps or a drink to have...it's not like "Hmm, I think I'll believe THIS today"...and it's not like a long term process either ..where 2 years later you think "Yep...I think I'll believe in God/not believe in God anymore after all!

BTW How can you tell me? From what authority? Fair enough you can have an idea. Hopefully my idea should be more correct than yours, me actually having the belief Not that I claim to be right without question, so I'm happy to entertain your thoughts. Thoughts which I think are very good (not in a condescending way either).

Yes, like I said, belief isn't a superficial choice. However you could still have reason enough yet choose not to believe... proof of God, as Jon Paul explained from the Summa, is available after you believe, and not before. You could life your whole life having reasoned the logic for belief, but then never actually 'choose' to believe.
And even after experiencing the proof, it is possible to reject it and not believe, as I did.

---

I never choose to be an atheist. I simply realised that I don't believe in god. Most of my life the thought of god was never in my mind. Everytime I hear about it, I'd walk off and ignore it. It was only until I knew about the word "atheist" and it's meaning that I knew I was an atheist. I didn't choose, I simply do not believe in a god or gods. The god claim was too far fetched and arrogant for me to believe it.

Yes Ace, I think I underwent the same process. I think non belief is the default stance. My friends talked of basic atheist ideas and I agreed with them. I moved into atheism.

I had no choice until it was presented to me and I considered it in my mid 20's.