Choosing to believe

[Whateverist]

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 depends. Let's assume you have no evidence for thinking whatever it may be is true. You might still start with a hunch in that direction. Or perhaps a desire for it to be true? Perhaps you have what you take to be personal evidence. So long as you have a motive I think you can find a way to 'justify' the belief.

But in the absence of any of those, it is hard to imagine how arbitrarily believing something is true without evidence or motive would work. That would be pretty chaotic.

Personally, I think belief should passively follow what you have reason to think true .. not advantageous. Keeping wishes separate from conclusions seems the better way to go about it.