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Is Belief a Choice?

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Submitted By mds0315
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Can One Chose to Believe?
Many followers of western religion find it hard to understand why others do not believe as they do. Take, for instance, the argument of Pascal's wager (Pensees pg. 151-153). Why would a person not chose to accept and follow God when there is everything to gain and nothing to lose? All one must do according to the Christian bible (NIV) is, "believe in the Lord Jesus, and be saved..." (Acts 16:31). Western religion emphasizes the importance of choosing to believe in and embrace God, but there may be an underlying and critical flaw in this collective religious conviction; does one actually choose to believe something, or is it merely an involuntary outlook based on what we perceive to be true from life experience?
Belief can also be examined in everyday life. It is all around and is used for every decision and in every thought. Borchert's Encyclopedia of Philosophy exemplifies the ulterior complexities of belief that many people are not conscious of; belief is "...a species of propositional attitude distinguished by having the mind-to-world direction of fit" (Borchert). A propositional attitude is simply a psychological mode paired with psychological content. In the case of belief, belief itself would be the psychological mode, and what one believes would be the content. The "mind-to-world direction of fit" refers to belief's "...aim to represent how the world is independently"(Borchert). With a verbal definition of belief, it is also necessary to understand the components. To believe something, there is a multitude of connections between numerous pieces of information and facts. "...Understanding the validity of the inference from the belief that gold is a metal, and the belief that this ring is gold, to the belief that this ring is metal, requires seeing the logical connections between the propositional contents of the first two beliefs and the last, and their shared elements" (Borchert). One must take several independent "facts" into consideration in order to connect them and form a belief.
Although it is not a highly explored philosophical idea, the question of whether or not belief is a choice has been periodically brought to light by philosophers. As mentioned previously, Pascal's wager undoubtedly insinuates that a person's free will is all that is necessary in giving him/her a choice in their beliefs. If belief were to be inherent in an individual, then Pascal's wager would mean nothing. One would either believe or not believe just as people are born male or female, so the wager depends entirely upon personal choice.
Even "the father of modern philosophy", René Descartes, had a solid view on the topic. "…When one lacks adequate evidence one can choose to believe something and hence fall into error through the exercise of free will, and thereby absolve God of responsibility for the error" (Borchert). In Meditations of First Philosophy, Descartes defends God from wrong doing by placing fault in human choice to sometimes believe something that is not true (Descartes). Descartes, much like Pascal, described belief as a choice corresponding to free will, but although both philosophers describe how belief can be a choice, neither philosopher addressed the question of whether it is always a choice.
The role of free-will and choice in the function of western religion seems to have greatly influenced the philosophical views of both the previously mentioned philosophers who have attributed belief to personal choice. Without a choice not all people have a chance for redemption and a main pillar of Christianity crumbles. Perhaps Pascal avoided the question in its entirety because of the implications the truth would have on his own beliefs. Perhaps Descartes avoided the answer to stay away from persecution. Whatever the reasons, the light in which belief has been viewed may have tainted the purity of the question and caused subjective answers to the nature of belief.
Contrary, take for example a scenario devoid of any religious interference. Suppose a person is offered a brand new car if they will simply choose to believe that the ocean is orange. This fictitious person has always believed that the ocean is blue (as most people would agree) because of his/her knowledge of what the color blue "is", his/her perception of what the ocean "is", and the connection between the two. No matter how much the person wants to believe that the ocean is orange, their observations of the world around them will not allow this new belief.
In the end, it seems beliefs are formed in the mind from the information one observes in the world. With this said, I don’t see how it is possible for someone to chose to fully believe something. An individual can chose to try and believe something, but it seems that they would be able to do nothing more than to try.

Bibliography
Descartes, Rene. “Meditations on First Philosophy” (1641). In The Philosophical Writings of Descartes. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1984.
Borchert, M. Donald. Encyclopedia of Philosophy; second edition, volume 1. Thomson Gale. 2006. Print.
Pascal, Blaise. Pensees (1670). Harmondsworth, U.K.: Penguin, 1966.
The book of Acts. The New International Version Bible.

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