Reply #186: No belief is a choice

[jberryhill]

You can no more choose what you believe than you can stop the sun from coming up.

If I offer you a million dollars to believe something. Something completely innocuous. Would you choose to believe it?

I'm not talking about conclusions reached on the basis of reason, I'm talking about FAITH. Faith is belief without evidence, without reason.

You can't choose that.

Okay, here's my offer. For a million dollars. I want you to believe there is a little green man who lives on the dark side of the moon. His name is Fred. He doesn't ask anything of you, and he just hangs out back there, doesn't need anything from you, and doesn't care for visitors.

However, Fred gave me a million dollars to give to YOU if you simply believe he lives on the other side of the moon.

Sure, you can tell me you believe in Fred, but lets assume I have a machine that can read your true inner thoughts and, without error, tell me whether you believe in Fred.

Are you going to collect that million dollars - no matter how hard you try?

No.

You will WANT to believe, you might THINK you believe even, but when I check the machine - nope - every time it tells me that you don't really believe it.

And that is exactly the situation a lot of so-called Christians find themselves in. They are driven to convince themselves they believe. They figure if, like a Turing test, that other people conclude they believe, then it must mean they really believe.

But, you know what. They don't really believe, and they spend a lifetime trying.

The ones that try the hardest - become preachers.