Choosing to believe

[Angrboda]

I wonder if what is meant is that something always "drives" our beliefs. People often wouldn't choose to believe in heaven or hell for example, except for fear. Fear drives religion. Without it, I'm not sure many people would "choose" it.

“If everything on earth were rational, nothing would happen.”

― Fyodor Dostoyevsky


One interesting theory of religion is that belief systems are cobbled together using aspects of cognitive abilities used for other functions under non-religious circumstances. For example, the idea of an invisible mind, if disengaged from the requirement that it accompany a body, can become ghosts or gods. The thing is that many of these cognitive functions aren't really under rational control: the mind calls upon the systems, but the systems are largely subconcious in operation. Many of these cognitive "side-effects" are involved in things like social functioning, and are not therefore driven by reasons so much as by social needs and emotions.