One either chooses to believe or not. We all have free will and sometimes we trust what we think we know rather than what truly is. God gives us a choice. In the end you will reap the reward you have earned.
Why do people keep trotting out this utterly stupid statement? Time and again, every religious thread brings it out. Can people simply not think? Choose to believe in the Easter bunny....go ahead, try it. How about Santa Claus? There's no downside, only benefits. Free presents, free chocolate eggs....maybe it only happens if you believe? But you can't, because it seems ridiculous to you. This is why Christians generally won't respond to this question, because it makes it a bit of a problem to judge and condemn people who believe wrongly in their eyes.
Would have to agree.
The statement is just too stupid for words...
Maybe not so stupid....I will risk using a silly example... but..... for example, do you believe in the Easter Bunny? Probably not and you could provide the reasons why you don’t believe. There may be evidence that the Easter Bunny does indeed live.... at least on the Hallmark Channel, but after looking at the evidence, you choose ....”not” to believe in the Easter Bunny. It is indeed a choice you have made.
You likely make similar choices about “right” and “wrong”..... and about political philosophies.... you get the idea... you make choices about what you believe.
Now one might say that a person is simply a product of his environment and really cannot overcome that and make his own choices. Only the weak minded and cowardly hold to that thinking. It implies that one is not responsible for his own choices.... I choose not to believe that..... based on the evidence seen in our human experiences.
Anyway, I have examined the evidence for the existence of God.... I looked at this argument for and that argument against and I chose to believe. Simple.
Warning: there are bible verses that clearly indicate that a man does indeed choose ...God or not....see Joshua’s statement about choosing God. But, it also teaches that God has a hand in it as well.... see Acts and the conversion of Lydia. These “side by side” teachings are somewhat of a mystery to me, but.... just because I do not fully understand simply means I do not fully understand....yet.
Thank you TF49 for taking this on and actually trying to make sense of it. I still cannot quite agree though. The Easter Bunny/Santa Claus examples were admittedly silly, and chosen for that reason, but you correctly pointed out there is no evidence that would make a rational person even consider their existence. Still, I would say that there is no choice available there to the reasonable man, you really couldn't force yourself to believe it, even if you wanted to.
Let's take something like UFO's for an example,and assume they are aalien beings from other worlds. There is "evidence" for this, at least according to some. I want them to be real. I want them to be from far off exotic worlds. I want them to come here and tell us awesome mind blowing things. I really,really do. I've watched documentaries, read books, listened to interviews etc, and I still can't say I believe. The evidence presented is usually not verifiable, or the people aren't credible,or the stories seem just a little too implausible for me to get fully on board. On the other hand, someone else may see the exact same documentaries,interviews and articles and be fully convinced, completely sure that other-worldly aliens do indeed exist.
I believe that people are indeed largely a product of their environment, but not completely. Many factors are at play, but no doubt the environment has a massive influence. For example, how many who consider themselves Christian would admit that had they been raised in a Muslim country,by Muslim parents, they would now almost certainly be Muslim? Not all, of course,as some people raised Muslim do indeed convert to other religions,or abandon it all together. So, maybe you wouldn't be a Muslim, but you have to admit that the chances are much greater that you would be.
Closer to home, we have Mormons. I know good, smart people who are Mormons, people as capable of rational thought in most matters as anyone else, I would say. These people believe things that I find baffling. I read their stuff and it seems totally bizarre to me. If one of them were to say "you have to want to believe it for it to make sense", I don't think I could actually make myself want to believe it. It's just too far out there for my brain to say "yeah this might be legit, let's look into it". Those Mormons could now say I've chosen not to believe, but I maintain I had no choice, I simply found it unbelievable.
