I find in Scripture that the man who became the apostle Paul felt empowered by the un-faithful Jewish religious leaders, empowered to the point that he considered it his God-given duty to prosecute any people who disagreed.Can you choose what you believe?
To be clear, I'm not asking if you can choose your religion or if you can choose what to label yourself or your views.
Can you choose what to believe or disbelieve? Or are such core convictions or biases inherent in the individual based on experiences? Or are they based on something else? If so, what?
In time, he saw the distinction between the wrong religious teachings and of what God approves.
Thus, Paul choose to change his ways based on what he learned from the Scriptures.
So, like Paul many sincere people are deceived by teachings that might be likened to impossible figures:
beliefs that seem plausible but are Not based on Scripture (Proverbs 14:12; Romans 10:2-3) but when they saw the beliefs, and the fruits of what their religion really is, then they made changes in both belief and lifestyle in order to have God's approval.- Matthew 7:15-20.
So, we should all be willing to examine our beliefs in the light of God's Word.