Do you control what you believe?

[Whateverist]

Or we could say we do control what we believe in order to suit ourselves. We just don't control what suits ourselves. We're more involved consciously than most determinists and monists allow, but of course there is something about being someone in particular which prejudices ones choices.

If I could control what I believe to suit myself, I would not be an atheist.

I feel like I should send you a cake with a file in it. So sorry to hear that atheism is such a prison for you. Perhaps feeling as though you are being truthful with yourself is even more important to you than the comforts of theism?

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Or we could say we do control what we believe in order to suit ourselves. We just don't control what suits ourselves. We're more involved consciously than most determinists and monists allow, but of course there is something about being someone in particular which prejudices ones choices.

“A man’s character is his fate.”
— Heraclitus

“We don’t see things the way they are. We see things the way we are.”
— Anais Nin

“I haven't any strength, I haven't any character, I'm a born tool. I haven't any destiny. All I have is dreams. And now other people run them.”
— The Lathe Of Heaven, Ursula K Le Guin

I can pretty much give each of these quotes an amen. But I feel no loss of freedom in that. Free to be me, is all the free I ever hoped for. That doesn't feel like a prison cell to me because I do not start out knowing the extent of 'me'. I'll confess, I like what I've come to so far. I'll probably run out of time long before I run out new 'me' to discover.