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for instance, a person can list beliefs which they hold.
for each belief on the list, they can consider and choose whether to "believe" it (keep the belief) or choose to "not believe" it (discard the belief).
for instance growing up children may believe what they are told (at home, or at school, or by friends, or by family, or in books).
however as adults we are free to consciously examine and identify the beliefs we hold, and then then choose as adults whether to keep or discard those beliefs. this is a useful and ongoing exercise which people can do throughout their life. i distinctly remember in my early 30s when it dawned on me that something i had believed about myself my whole life was simply not true. In fact the opposite was true. It was momentous because close on the heels of that discovery, was the really earthshaking thought "If they lied to me about that then what else did they lie to me about?" Which has since morphed into "If I believed that, then what else have i been told about myself that is simply not true?"
Could you choose to not believe in God if you wanted to?
people may have reasons for their beliefs.
based on those reasons they choose what to believe.
think of it this way.
Do you believe that "a person chooses what to say" OR do you believe that "spoken words just happen" "a person does not have a choice what they say" "spoken words have a life of their own and what a person says is out of their control" "a person can't change what they say"
it's the same rationale.
do you believe that "a person chooses what to believe" OR do you believe that "beliefs just happen" "a person does not have a choice what they believe" "beliefs have a life of their own and what a person believes is out of their control" "a person can't change what they believe"
Last edited by Tzaphkiel; 12-27-2022 at 08:45 PM..
For myself, becoming an atheist was because of an inability to reconcile what I saw with what I had been taught.
God is supposed to be a loving father who is to be obeyed or bad things happen. My own father liked to think he was a loving father who definitely had to be obeyed or I'd get hit with a belt. I didn't love my own father and I sure wasn't going to try to love another one who, to my mind, was exactly the same. Especially one who let his own son die.
Then there were all the contradictions in the Bible. Jesus loved children but all the first born sons of Egypt were killed. God loves people but he sent a flood to kill everyone.
I still hear references to a "loving father" and I see so many people hurting and dying and living miserable lives. I don't care that I will "understand one day". If there's an almighty God and he lets these things happen, it's not right.
Then I saw that every single religion had its own god and each religion thought it had the one and only true god. To me, that wasn't logical, especially as so many of them spent so much time fighting about whose god was best.
And of course now I see so many so-called "Christians" who seem to do and act just the opposite of what they say they believe in. With people like that populating heaven, who needs hell?
So I don't believe in the Christian god or really any other god. Maybe these reasons are why other people don't either.
Could you choose to not believe in God if you wanted to?
Yes, that is a choice one makes. Time and again there are atheists here who say the very thing, don’t they? Or they try another religion, and yet another, one that is Godless. To be religious is to believe in a deity or divinity.
For myself, becoming an atheist was because of an inability to reconcile what I saw with what I had been taught.
God is supposed to be a loving father who is to be obeyed or bad things happen. My own father liked to think he was a loving father who definitely had to be obeyed or I'd get hit with a belt. I didn't love my own father and I sure wasn't going to try to love another one who, to my mind, was exactly the same. Especially one who let his own son die.
Then there were all the contradictions in the Bible. Jesus loved children but all the first born sons of Egypt were killed. God loves people but he sent a flood to kill everyone.
I still hear references to a "loving father" and I see so many people hurting and dying and living miserable lives. I don't care that I will "understand one day". If there's an almighty God and he lets these things happen, it's not right.
Then I saw that every single religion had its own god and each religion thought it had the one and only true god. To me, that wasn't logical, especially as so many of them spent so much time fighting about whose god was best.
And of course now I see so many so-called "Christians" who seem to do and act just the opposite of what they say they believe in. With people like that populating heaven, who needs hell?
So I don't believe in the Christian god or really any other god. Maybe these reasons are why other people don't either.
people may have reasons for their beliefs.
based on those reasons they choose what to believe.
think of it this way.
Do you believe that "a person chooses what to say" OR do you believe that "spoken words just happen" "a person does not have a choice what they say" "spoken words have a life of their own and what a person says is out of their control" "a person can't change what they say"
it's the same rationale.
do you believe that "a person chooses what to believe" OR do you believe that "beliefs just happen" "a person does not have a choice what they believe" "beliefs have a life of their own and what a person believes is out of their control" "a person can't change what they believe"
To reach a point where you believe something is true, particular something that is profound, is the point where there is such clarity, that it would be difficult to imagine making any other choice.
To reach a point where you believe something is true, particular something that is profound, is the point where there is such clarity, that it would be difficult to imagine making any other choice.
any belief, profound or not, clarity or not, is still a belief, and is still a choice.
whether it is i believe that is the best route to drive to work, or i believe it's time to leave this marriage.
I wonder how many Athiests made that choice because they were simply disenfranchised with their religion vs those who simply simply learned through study of science, that there is simply no need for a god and that the physical laws of the universe can explain everything, everything known and everything not unknown. It could be a combination of the two or simply one or the other but fascinating nonetheless.
any belief, profound or not, clear or not, is still a belief, and is still a choice.
whether it is i believe that is the best route to drive to work, or i believe it's time to leave this marriage.
I'm not trying to eliminate the choice and some choices are pretty easy. I'm speaking more in terms of the profound. Embarking on a spiritual journey that bears such fruit, it would be difficult to imagine in light of what you have learned, what you have experienced that you would choose something else. It would be a dissonant choice. Leaving a marriage is also profound, it probably doesn't just happen, it's a process and that point where you leave it, I think it would be difficult to stay. Sure its a choice but it is probably the only choice one could make at that moment based on everything that got them to that point.
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