Is Belief in Jesus a Choice?

[bluegreenearth]

Do people make the choice to believe in the Biblical claims about Jesus?

[bluegreenearth]

[Replying to 1213 in post #58]

You cannot choose what convinces you because belief is an involuntary reaction to evidence rather than a conscious decision of the will. ...

Thank you for your opinion. I have no reason to accept it, because for me belief is a decision of the will.

Please demonstrate for the audience your ability to believe by a decision of the will. Provide the audience with a claim that you currently don't believe, then choose to believe by a decision of the will. It won't be satisfactory to just responding to say you now believe the claim because the audience has no way to determine if you are being honest. So, you'll have to figure out a way to demonstrate your new belief.

[POI]

for me belief is a decision of the will.

We've addressed this before. Please simply will the belief that Santa Claus is real. I bet you cannot do it, no matter how much you try to will such a belief.

[1213]

Please demonstrate for the audience your ability to believe by a decision of the will. Provide the audience with a claim that you currently don't believe, then choose to believe by a decision of the will. It won't be satisfactory to just responding to say you now believe the claim because the audience has no way to determine if you are being honest. So, you'll have to figure out a way to demonstrate your new belief.

Choosing what to believe happens by choosing what is convincing evidence for it. So, for example an atheist who doesn't want to believe, ignores or discredits any evidence that would support belief in God and that way belief is a choice.

I don't want to be unreasonable and untruthful, therefore I don't choose to believe something that has no good reasons, or is not based on truth.

[bluegreenearth]

Choosing what to believe happens by choosing what is convincing evidence for it. So, for example an atheist who doesn't want to believe, ignores or discredits any evidence that would support belief in God and that way belief is a choice.

Please provide the evidence demonstrating that an atheist who doesn't want to believe a god exists ignores or discredits any evidence that would support the belief.

[POI]

I don't want to be unreasonable and untruthful, therefore I don't choose to believe something that has no good reasons, or is not based on truth.

I see you skipped my request. Likely because you already know that you actually have no free will to voluntarily believe that Santa Claus is real. Just like there is no way for you to voluntarily will the belief that 1 + 1 = 3.

To make this easy, simply replace one word in the title of this post to demonstrate:

Is Belief in [Santa] a Choice? Easy. The answer is no!

Just as I used to believe in Santa and no longer do, is roughly identical to why I also used to believe in a living Jesus and no longer do.

Thanks

[1213]

Choosing what to believe happens by choosing what is convincing evidence for it. So, for example an atheist who doesn't want to believe, ignores or discredits any evidence that would support belief in God and that way belief is a choice.

Please provide the evidence demonstrating that an atheist who doesn't want to believe a god exists ignores or discredits any evidence that would support the belief.

The life and the Bible are evidence for the God. Every atheist I know discredits them and says they are not.

[bluegreenearth]

The life and the Bible are evidence for the God. Every atheist I know discredits them and says they are not.

Demonstrate that atheists are necessarily choosing to discredit those evidences rather than being compelled to discredit them.

[Bradskii]

Choosing what to believe happens by choosing what is convincing evidence for it. So, for example an atheist who doesn't want to believe, ignores or discredits any evidence that would support belief in God and that way belief is a choice.

I don't want to be unreasonable and untruthful, therefore I don't choose to believe something that has no good reasons, or is not based on truth.

That's a bit of a mixture, but your first sentence is essentially right. You choose what evidence sounds most convincing to you and if you keep accepting the evidence then belief will automatically follow. You can't decide to believe. But you can decide to accept or reject evidence which might lead to belief.

Your second sentence is kinda correct. I wouldn't want to believe that my wife was unfaithful for example, so I might reject evidence that would suggest it. In the same way, you'd be committed to your belief in Jesus so you might reject out of hand convincing evidence that He didn't exist. The point being that having accepted evidence which leads to a belief, that might well find you then rejecting further evidence which contradicts your belief. That's just human nature. It can be relatively easy to convince someone that something is true. But having done so, it's quite hard to then convince them it's not.

[1213]

Demonstrate that atheists are necessarily choosing to discredit those evidences rather than being compelled to discredit them.

If there is something that compels atheists, please tell what it is?

[bluegreenearth]

Demonstrate that atheists are necessarily choosing to discredit those evidences rather than being compelled to discredit them.

If there is something that compels atheists, please tell what it is?

Yes, it is called doxastic involuntarism.