Do you CHOOSE to believe...

[EasterBunnylicious]

DH and I had a debate in the car to my MIL's about belief, or you could call it faith, in things like God, fairies, etc. He says that it's not a chose you just believe or you you don't based on evidence. I say that you make a choice to believe in something, obviously that choice may be affected by your past experiences or social aspects, but you choose to believe.

E.g. I am an atheist, I don't believe in God but I could easily change my mind, nothing would happen, I wouldn't be presented with any new evidence or anything I would just change my mind and choose to believe in God, and once I had made that decision I expect that I would start to see things in a new light that would reinforce that belief. But it would have to be a choice, how else would it happen.

DH doesn't have an alternative explanation but he doesn't see it as a choice.

What do you think?

I dont think you choose FAITH. You either believe or you dont.

You do choose RELIGION.

I personally cannot accept religion in it's entirity. To me, religion is man made. I take a lot from all aspects of different religion to find my own inner peace.

Having said that I CANNOT ACCEPT that there is NOT a divine presence at work here.

I tried to be an atheist for a few years, after a sad event in my family. I simply couldn't. I could not stop believing.

I agree with horseshoe- I believe, but based on those beliefs I choose not to be in a mainstream religion.
As a teenager brought up in a differnt faith to my current one I chose to read up on different beliefs which changed my own and as a result rejected the religion of my childhood- mainly because the actions of the religious group concerned were at odds with what their words said about love, women, and forgivness of others.

It becomes a choice at a certain point. I think that you are raised to believe in a faith, as most children accept what their parents teach them, then as we grow up and start to question said beliefs, it becomes a choice to believe your original faith or something different.