(March 5, 2014 at 5:13 pm)Jacob(smooth) Wrote: I have a 90 minute drive to work on a Wednesday. I try to vary my audio book / podcast listening pleasure. Hence this morning was the rather entertaining "across the pond", a current affairs Christian podcast, and this evening was "the God delusion".
On of prof Dawkins statements, under Pascals Wager, was that one can't simply decide to believe in something. I wonder if that's true.
What say you?
It seems easy enough to test (but I suppose belief is too intensely personal for this to apply to everyone). Answer honestly the following questions.
-Can you choose to believe there are faeries in you garden?
-Can you choose to believe that Greenland does not exist?
-Can you choose to believe that oak trees are actually made of edam cheese?
-Can you choose to believe that there are no such things as codfish?
-Can you choose to believe that the people you see on television are only a few inches high and actually live inside the box?
There's more, but that'll do to go on with. I doubt very much that people can choose to believe or disbelieve in a proposition, based solely on the nature of that proposition. They must be presented with evidence, compelling arguments, 'best explanation' scenarios - something that (to their minds, at least) justifies having a particular belief.
I suspect (but cannot prove) that the overwhelming majority of religionists believe in their particular god(s) via a combination of inertia and ignorance: their parents and grandparents held this belief, and they either haven't been presented with alternatives, or the reject the alternatives due to inertia.
I suppose, then, that people don't so much choose a belief as they become (rightly or wrongly) convinced of a belief.
Boru
‘I can’t be having with this.’ - Esmeralda Weatherwax
