If I offered you $1000 to believe the sky is green and grass is red, could you choose to believe so?
You might proclaim to believe so and claim you have earned the cash. But you could not actually believe what you know in your very heart to be untrue.
And David Copperfield is no Magician. He is an Illusionist. Magic does NOT exist.
Seem to me that “choosing what to believe” is absolutely a free will choice. We all get input from our life experiences and we evaluate our “input” if you will. We discard what we find to be unbelievable and accept what we see as true. Your example of the sky simply shows that one looks at the evidence and chooses to believe his own eyes... or what he reads about atmospheric conditions ....and then chooses to believe the sky is blue.... when he is presented with the idea that the sky is green, he makes an evaluation and discards the idea that the sky is green. He has, in effect, chosen to believe the sky is blue and determines that the idea of the sky being green is simply untrue.
We do indeed choose what to believe. And it is not all “fact based” analysis. Look at all the folks out there that choose to believe lies..... they believe lies because they want to.
I am at a fork in the road. Do I go left or right? is a choice. I have a Bible on my book shelf. Do I read it? is a choice. Pretty girl in class. Do I speak to her? is a choice. Pretty woman at the bar. Do I cheat on my wife with her. Is a choice. Beer at the store. Do I buy it? is a choice. Been at the bar drinking all night. Do I drive home? Is a choice. Shove a needle in my arm? Is a choice Becoming addicted to crystal meth? is a choice Continuing to consume crystal meth after addiction? still a choice?
Look at a grassy lawn and believe it to be green? Not a choice Believe it to be red. Still not a choice Believe that 2X6 does not equal 6X2? Not a choice. Read that bible and believe Christ was born of a virgin? not a choice believe that Noah gathered 2 or 7 of every species extant upon the Earth and stuffed them into a tiny boat and fed them for weeks upon end? Not a choice believe that the face of the Earth was submerged under water about 4000 years ago? Not a choice believe the human body is inhabited by some ethereal soul? not a choice
People who choose to brew up their own storms bitch loudest about the rain.
