Can You Choose to Believe?

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

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To a point, you can. Experience teaches us, and we can (to some degree) choose our experiences.

I can avoid a scientific education, for example. I can avoid direct contact with certain groups and substitute canned knowledge from selected tv and internet sources. I can choose what books to read, which backyards to step into, and which political rallies to attend.

I dont think you can directly choose to believe something though.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

'Believe' has a number of contexts, yes. In a philosophical sense, it is (to me) the relation of truthiness between a mind and things in the world.

In that sense, you can't choose it any more than you can choose things in the world to be truthie.

It is easy enough to believe that a person can have superpowers for about two hours. Belief is actually rather malleable.

We tend to forget that during discussions about theism and religion because the standard case involves belief in a creator God, and that is a pretty tall order.

Anthropologists, from what I know, often immerse themselves in different cultures and end up "borrowing" their beliefs to some extent. Such changes of belief are not necessarily deep and very meaningful, but I don't think that means much in and of itself.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

Isnt that a fundemental in american christian philosphy? Its the evangelical billy graham philosphy as far as i know.

We also can choose to believe a lot of things not related to religion.

What we most certainly cannot always choose is our experiences. Sometimes experiences sneak up on us unannounced. There are some experiences we can have that might be interpreted in certain ways that are rather strange to say the least. Happens all the time.

LuisDantas said:

It is easy enough to believe that a person can have superpowers for about two hours. Belief is actually rather malleable.

We tend to forget that during discussions about theism and religion because the standard case involves belief in a creator God, and that is a pretty tall order.

Anthropologists, from what I know, often immerse themselves in different cultures and end up "borrowing" their beliefs to some extent. Such changes of belief are not necessarily deep and very meaningful, but I don't think that means much in and of itself.

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Is it malleable, or are you actually suspending belief to enjoy Thor battling the Incredible Hulk? In what sense is it malleable?

Yes. In fact, I would say we often do. Right before we act with less than enough information, which is practically always.

We often choose without any ''evidence.'' I could believe that the tree is real, from afar...without ever having to see it.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

Um well, I don't know. Perhaps that question is already answered for you? You might read Romans 10 ... "Faith cometh by hearing and hearing by the word of God."

Chapter 10 is really good, and for me it explains that no matter all the rituals and begrudging obedience, no matter it won't do it.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

Many do. You see that here quite often. When a person has an irrational belief and they are shown why it is wrong to maintain that false belief one has to choose not to accept evidence.

I used to reject AGW and did not want to believe the evidence to the contrary. Luckily I did open my eyes eventually.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

I think it matters also what you do with that "belief", and what you do with it is of your own choosing.

You can believe that there's a tree in your backyard even though you never seen it. But then you go out, advocate for environmental issues, saying things like "the tree in my backyard is suffering because of all these pollution!", and you choose to make the belief true in your heart.

While you may have experienced the tree and stumbled upon it, but then you just leave the tree alone and never do anything or bother checking the tree anymore. Then the tree might as well not exist anymore, you chose to delete it from your heart.

Willamena said:

Is it malleable, or are you actually suspending belief to enjoy Thor battling the Incredible Hulk? In what sense is it malleable?

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On occasion I have actually channelled fictional characters in various ways.I think it goes a bit beyond suspension of disbelief.

People choose based on what they believe. While beliefs can and do change, it isnt a matter of choice.

Edit: sorry if this post is duplicated, I'll fix it in a second.

Sunstone said:

So, can you choose to believe?

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Of course.
The goal would be to not have any unconscious beliefs.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

As far as I am concerned it is all about information and evidence. One doesn't make choices or start to believe any particular thing without these things entering one's life. Some it seems to me have low levels for evidence and others higher levels. And the same goes for personal experiences. It might be quite easy to interpret an experience as one particular thing based on your past experiences when another would not do so. So choice must then follow from accepting or rejecting that which has come into your life in these forms. How can one sensibly believe anything without sufficient information or evidence that the belief is warranted? And being told anything by others is a very low level in my opinion, especially written material from long ago. Surely it is better to keep an open mind than believe anything without sufficient evidence. So, yes, we do choose, by accepting or rejecting that which might lead to a particular belief.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

Most people cannot actually react to a reasoned argument unless the opinion comes from someone they trust. The factual content is nearly irrelevant, in fact, most people will adopt ludicrous ideas so long as they think fondly enough of the speaker of them.

Experiential assimilation has its flaws as well, in that it depends on your subjective impressions shaping the information. Effectively what you learn must adhere to your framework of knowledge and likewise you will reject that information doesn't sit well in this hierarchy. (You simply trust the accumulated body of information more than the new information.) The receptivity to the information is strictly governed by whatever you decide is acceptable at that moment. Without some critical failure in your usage you're likely to plod on right as rain. If the failure was not perceivable to you it's unlikely you will change at all.

These weaknesses are rather hard to address, but the place to start is realizing both you and the person you speak with are correct in different ways. Rarely does any particular choice have no merits despite how abhorrent you may feel it is. It's better to sell ideas and buy them in the context that you both gain through awareness of the options. The lack of awareness is the ultimate problem - realize when to quote the "authority" and when that authority is venturing into the fringe. Be more aware that your opinions are shaped by your environment and your ability to currently perceive them. Stop letting your mind play card tricks with itself and maintain adaptability toward the reception of ideas knowing that any time what you know could be out window tomorrow. Stop identifying with the ideas with your personality as well. Ego really messes with both things as well - your authority can be wrong, you can be wrong, and even the person you argue with can be at ANY time. And, that's OK.

Sunstone said:

So, can you choose to believe?

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It might be more accurate to ask whether we can choose what not to believe. We can't choose what to believe as we believe everything (at first anyway).

Our brains initially interpret that which we can comprehend as being true, and disbelief is the effortful action.

As to whether we can choose to believe something we have deemed to be false, over time we probably could convince ourselves by force of will. Pretend something for long enough and it becomes natural.

Subduction Zone said:

Many do. You see that here quite often. When a person has an irrational belief and they are shown why it is wrong to maintain that false belief one has to choose not to accept evidence.

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I'd say it requires much more effort to choose to accept the evidence. It requires no real conscious effort to reject that which conflicts with your beliefs.

We are never neutral when preexisting beliefs come into contact with new information, but have strong cognitive biases against that which conflicts and in favour of that which confirms.

This affects us all, without exception, as we only have limited rationality.

Sunstone said:

Suppose there are different ways of knowing and/or believing something. Say, one way to believe something is to become intellectually convinced of it through reasoned argument, but another way to believe something is to experience it.

The difference between believing the tree in my back yard is real because I told you it is, and one night stumbling into it.

So, can you choose to believe?

Click to expand...

We can change and become ignorant in the former. Maybe denial or suppression of facts.

We can reinterpret our experiences in the latter.

For example,

I don't believe there is a tree in the yard; it's actually a bush. It doesn't change fact but it does change how one views that fact as true from their perspective. (We living life through perspective)

Or we ran into the tree but instead of attributing the pain to the tree, we may change our belief saying, no. I thought it was a tree but I just woke up on the wrong side of the bed.

It doesn't change fact just perspective or interpretation of them.

Augustus said:

It might be more accurate to ask whether we can choose what not to believe. We can't choose what to believe as we believe everything (at first anyway).

Our brains initially interpret that which we can comprehend as being true, and disbelief is the effortful action.

As to whether we can choose to believe something we have deemed to be false, over time we probably could convince ourselves by force of will. Pretend something for long enough and it becomes natural.

Click to expand...

That's certainly NOT my experience. In general, when I hear an idea, I put it in a type of 'holding cell' where I evaluate it. If anything, I start out skeptical and am moved to belief if the idea fits well with other, previous beliefs that are related. So, if anything, I find it far easier to disbelieve than to believe.