(April 7, 2015 at 4:15 pm)robvalue Wrote: I'll say it once more so that theists can ignore it once more.
Belief is not a choice.
Pretending to believe is not impressive. Especially, you'd think, to a god.
And sure, I can revisit the wager to kick it in the crotch one more time.
It isn't a pure choice, but one can choose to stick one's fingers in one's ears and loudly say "LaLaLaLa..." to avoid listening, whenever someone starts to challenge one's beliefs.
One can choose to dwell on matters, or to try to push things from one's mind and think about something else, perhaps using drugs or loud music or sex to get one to stop thinking about something.
One can choose to research something, to get more information, or one can choose to avoid doing such things.
So there is some element of choice to what one believes. But yes, you are right, one does not merely choose beliefs, the way one might choose which shirt to put on in the morning. I could no sooner choose to believe in a god than I could choose to believe that I am the Queen of England.
"A wise man ... proportions his belief to the evidence."
— David Hume, An Enquiry Concerning Human Understanding, Section X, Part I.
