Do you believe; and why?

[Dill]

(05-08-2019, 09:46 PM)Lucidus Wrote: Are you speaking of determinism?

Perhaps a soft determinism. Not the hard, 17th-century "mechanistic" kind.

People arrive at their beliefs as a consequence of many factors, most of which they have no control over, so there is always a deal of chance and accident in the formation of beliefs (fundamental beliefs about the nature of the universe). I don't see a "butterfly effect" setting off a rigid, linear concatenation of causes and effects determining that this person is going to be a Muslim and that one a Roman Catholic.

What I am arguing, though, is that fundamental beliefs cannot be chosen. They pretty much choose us.

I hate the Patriots. But I believe they won the Superbowl this year.  I may lie and claim they did not, or fudge it with some rationalization (they cheated!). But  I cannot "choose" to believe they did not win.   Our minds/brains are not made like that.

Same for answers to questions like are you a Christian/atheist/Buddhist?  People don't decide those issues like they decide to try rocky road instead of vanilla ice cream.  You choose to put bacon bits on your salad--or not. You do not "choose" to be an atheist. You can't help it. If someone makes a really convincing (to you) argument that there is a god, you will not be able to choose not to believe.

People's beliefs do change though. Perhaps someone accepted his parents' worldview without much thought, and then 12 years of public schooling made that worldview impossible to hold any more.  Kepler wanted so badly to believe planetary orbits were perfectly circular.  But could not maintain that belief when his empirical observation undermined it.