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Choosing to believe
#13
RE: Choosing to believe
I would agree that you can't simply choose to believe something that you are set against believing. However, I think there's a lot more gray than this. For one, it assumes that reason is the main faculty of mind involved in determining how to evaluate a proposition. I think there are more players at the table, including emotions, intuition, cognitive biases, and the person's environment. So while you can't simply will yourself to believe or disbelieve something, you can incline yourself toward developing a belief or disbelief depending on things other than whether you find the belief reasonable or not.

In the question of acting and feeling, we know that how you feel affects how you will act, but it's also the case that how you act will affect the way you feel. This is the premise behind several well regarded therapeutic techniques. I think that, just like with feelings and action, belief can be encouraged through manipulation of these other factors. The stories of people turning to religion after a stressor are common, so obviously our emotional lives can influence what our reason accepts as plausible. And people can turn away from religion as a result of causes having little to do with reason.

So, no, we can't simply will ourselves to believe or disbelieve without regard to reason and plausibility. However, we can make choices based on things other than reason which increase or decrease the likelihood of belief, and some of those factors are under our control.

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Messages In This Thread
Choosing to believe - by Jacob(smooth) - March 5, 2014 at 5:13 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by eyemixer - March 5, 2014 at 5:18 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Mr. Moncrieff - March 5, 2014 at 5:22 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Bad Wolf - March 5, 2014 at 5:58 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by FreeTony - March 5, 2014 at 6:08 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by BrianSoddingBoru4 - March 5, 2014 at 6:13 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Jacob(smooth) - March 5, 2014 at 6:19 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Jackalope - March 5, 2014 at 6:26 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Jacob(smooth) - March 5, 2014 at 6:37 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Esquilax - March 6, 2014 at 12:38 am
RE: Choosing to believe - by BrianSoddingBoru4 - March 5, 2014 at 6:29 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Fromper - March 6, 2014 at 12:53 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Wyrd of Gawd - March 5, 2014 at 7:27 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Simon Moon - March 5, 2014 at 7:35 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Angrboda - March 5, 2014 at 11:07 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by *Deidre* - March 5, 2014 at 11:07 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Angrboda - March 5, 2014 at 11:23 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Minimalist - March 6, 2014 at 12:09 am
RE: Choosing to believe - by Clueless Morgan - March 6, 2014 at 12:27 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Whateverist - March 6, 2014 at 1:06 am
RE: Choosing to believe - by Mister Agenda - March 6, 2014 at 12:43 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Tonus - March 6, 2014 at 1:00 pm
RE: Choosing to believe - by Angrboda - March 6, 2014 at 1:11 pm

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