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As I see it, one can choose a religion or spiritual path, one can choose to educate oneself or not, and one can choose to succumb to indoctrination or set out on their own journey. But one can't choose a belief; beliefs are inherent.
So you were visited by CoyoteMy beliefs are thrust upon me by that ultimate trickster....
That unrelentingly mysterious & misleading reality thingy.
We can choose not to believe can't we?
I'm not sure it's a matter of choice. Like I said above, there would have to be something to precipitate disbelief.
If one is an atheist that believes that death is the end and nothing lies after, I don't think they can just consciously choose one day to start believing in heaven or reincarnation. There would need to be a catalyst to initiate the change.
If one is choosing the method by which they determine what to believe is true (and we all are), then one is de facto choosing WHAT they believe to be true.As I see it, one can choose a religion or spiritual path, one can choose to educate oneself or not, and one can choose to succumb to indoctrination or set out on their own journey. But one can't choose a belief; beliefs are inherent.
This is very perceptive of you! I like how you called it "dark sorcery." You are absolutely correct, in my opinion. In fact, some believe it is in fact the Mind itself which unifies humanity in being clouded about spirituality. A single human being has a mind, but it is connected to the collective, kind of like a computer being networked into the collective. And the master of this collective in my metaphor is none other than the God of most religions. This is a living, conscious entity who was responsible for creating the material worlds, and makes sure everything runs like clockwork.There's more to it from my perspective. There is a dark sorcery that tries to make ambiguous of what is clear. To unlock clarity with respect to the signs of God, you need to fight and reflect. Choosing to fight and reflect is also a choice. Choosing to not fight and let the dark magic blind you your whole life is a choice, it's a choice not made on insight but a choice to be weak and let Iblis and his forces do what they want with us.
Fighting the lower self and the dark magic and the dark idol is a choice, and it's a choice if we strive for the sake of God.
Its impossible to distinguish truth from falsehood. Both are created through whatever information we hear or gather. So the only way to tell them apart is to put them to the test.
And that is how we decide to pursue truth over falsehood. However this doesn't come easy and unless one is critical and consistent in how they approach informations and beliefs and stick to a method for doing this, one will believe more falsehood than truth.
If a person doesn't demand evidence for their beliefs, then they are not seeking truth, nor are they consistent and definitely not critical either. They are bias and seek confirmation of what they already believe or want to believe is true.
If one is choosing the method by which they determine what to believe is true (and we all are), then one is de facto choosing WHAT they believe to be true.
I propose how we build our beliefs is up to us to some extent. That is we can build around standards that make us truth seekers.
(1) We can choose to build on clarity and clear proofs and not on shaky grounds.
(2) We can learn how to reason properly and become aware of our ways of thinking that lead us away from truth.
(3) We can funnel our seeking knowledge to reliable sources of information, if we attain skills to recognize who and what is a reliable source of information.
(4) We can asses who provides proofs and insights, and who is best in providing clear insights and proofs.
(5) We can use doubt to asses properly what we don't know at the same time not let us not build on what we should know and believe in with certainty.
That said, most people don't choose a lot of their beliefs, because they have not trained themselves to hold on to truth and leave falsehood and not mix the two. When you believe falsehood as much as truth, then you are a confused person, your faith on clarity is as strong as what is on ambiguity, and what you should be certain is true is built on what even might be what you should be certain of is false.
If we are truthful to ourselves, and this is hugest factor, we can asses what we really know and what we don't. But if we let our caprice choose what is true based on what it wants to be true, then we have no way of distinguishing falsehood from truth by those standards. We choose on whims.
And when you choose this way, yes, you don't chose to follow truth nor choose to follow falsehood, you simply chose to not be strong in pursuit of truth, which leads you to let go of holding on to truth, and in that case, your belief formations will seem chaotic as you don't build them on strong foundations.
So it's not that we choose to believe a particular belief, but we chose the factors on how to build knowledge. God is of course always there, and if we choose to not try to observe him, that's on us. If we throw out all spiritual vision, philosophy, knowledge of one self, out the window, and just want physical evidence, we might not find God.
So these are choices we make. And it's always a choice when presented with evidence and proofs to accept the evidence or proof or be stubborn. Stubbornness in face of proofs is also a choice.
Change comes; progress happens inevitably. The question is are we going to be the just endure the change? Or are we going to explore it?Yes, that is the case. Having said that, how does one make progress? Are some methods better than others?
No. All we humans can do in relation to Truth is practice/pursue honesty. Even if what we believed to be the truth of existence, were the truth of existence, we would have no way of validating it as such. We simply do not possess the capacity for that (omniscience). So all we can do is relate subjective, limited, facts to each other to try and determine their relative truthfulness. Or we can wallow in fantasy and delusion; pretending that we have found (or are searching for) "The Truth".I'm curious: do you believe it is possible to know or realize truth and if so, how does one go about it?
Well, there are many around here.So you were visited by Coyote
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There's more to it from my perspective. There is a dark sorcery that tries to make ambiguous of what is clear. To unlock clarity with respect to the signs of God, you need to fight and reflect. Choosing to fight and reflect is also a choice. Choosing to not fight and let the dark magic blind you your whole life is a choice, it's a choice not made on insight but a choice to be weak and let Iblis and his forces do what they want with us.
Fighting the lower self and the dark magic and the dark idol is a choice, and it's a choice if we strive for the sake of God.
But it's you who decides what "sufficient verifiable evidence" is. And it's you who decided to want this evidence. So you could change what you want, if you wanted.Personally I'm not capable of choosing any belief of significance. Either there is sufficient verifiable evidence to warrant belief or there isn't. I can't somehow choose to make myself believe it just because I'd like to believe it. .
But it's you who decides what "sufficient verifiable evidence" is. And it's you who decided to want this evidence. So you could change what you want, if you wanted.
I wonder why I've only seemed to find in conversations with many dozens of people that they rejected various meaningful viewpoints of their parents and emphasized their own in contrast to that of their parents.And most never question what they absorbed from the culture or taught by their parents etc.
To me it has varied by generation. The conformism to the parents beliefs and earlier careers has been breaking down for quite some time now.I wonder why I've only seemed to find in conversations with many dozens of people that they rejected various meaningful viewpoints of their parents and emphasized their own in contrast to that of their parents.
I think this idea that people just learn their beliefs by an absorption is at best only a temporary childhood effect that quickly is superseded in the teen years. And then remains unalike during the 20s, and on.
Now, when the child thinks differently, that doesn't necessarily mean they will always inform the parents. Some or many will, others won't. Or not yet.
No!! How on a spherical Earth can you reach such conclusion?Whether or not the Earth is flat, or spherical, depends on whether or not the proposal of it's "true nature" works according to one's experience of existence. Humans believed the Earth was flat for a long time because that presumption of truth worked experientially for them, for a very long time. Very recently, though, most humans have changed that belief and now presume the "true nature" of the Earth to be spherical, because that's the proposed "truth" that now works best for us, given our new technologies and experience of it. But in the future, we humans may well adopt a new concept of the Earth's "true nature' based on a conception that will work better for us via some new technological or intellectual interface with existence on the Earth. So which "Earth-truth" is the true truth? All of them, and none of them. Because we don't know the Earth's truth. We can only know our conceptualized experience of the Earth, as our "Earth-truth".