Faith vs Choice

Introduction

    Many times I've heard people say they didn't choose what they believe.  Usually it's in the context of losing one's faith.  Some scientists argue that belief is largely involuntary.  However, recent events and the many conversations I have had on this topic have led me to believe otherwise.  When I listen to the stories of those who have changed their beliefs, I usually hear hints that indicate this may not be so.  While these stories are usually de-conversion stories, often I also hear induction stories such as "I began to believe in flat earth," etc.  So I am writing this to explain why I believe this way.

The Science

    There are several pieces of science we can refer to before we begin.  First, "it takes more information to make you believe something you don't want to believe than something you do."  This is seen many times when you look at the tactics of the anti-vaccine and flat earth crowds.  (Hint: I do not believe in flat earth or anti-vaccine.)  They often rely on providing a person with many articles to prove their point.  If you read those articles carefully, though, almost all of them refer to multiple other articles.  But when you follow them all, almost none of them provide a reference to a bona fide scientific research study.  There are no facts.  It looks like there are facts, but in reality there are none.  This is sometimes referred to as "snowballing" in debates, where the person without substantial facts provides a bunch of things that look like facts but are only opinions.

    Perhaps more importantly and to the point, if someone already believes something, you often have to provide them "overwhelming" evidence to the contrary to get them to change their beliefs.  And even then, many will refuse to change them.

    But we find that a person has a choice as to what facts to accept and not accept, and this is based often on their ability to decide whether information they are presented with is factual or not factual.

    Indeed, " a second type of belief processing can be controlled by desires."  What this boils down to is that people choose to believe what they want to believe.  In part, this is called confirmation bias, in that people only look for evidence that confirms their current beliefs or their desired belief outcome.

    In that people choose what evidence to accept and what evidence to look for, people have indirect control over the resulting beliefs, which means they can choose their beliefs.  Indeed, we choose our beliefs every day based on what we want to believe and the information we take in.

Stories Usually Include an Intentional Process of Fact Finding

    Now that we've finished with the scientific aspect, here is my personal experience.  I've noticed that in the stories people tell, there is a hint that the person engaged in a choice of what evidence to accept or reject.  They often looked up information that, whether true or not, pushed them towards one belief or another.  Often de-conversion stories go something like this: "I became a Christian, but then I went to university and learned that everything I knew was wrong."  Was everything you knew wrong, or did you simply not know enough about what you claimed to believe?

Stories Often Include a Social Element

    Often, stories, especially de-conversion stories, include a social element.  It often revolves around family or friends saying negative things about their beliefs.  These negative things said about their beliefs are often things that the individual was unprepared to deal with.  We know from psychological research on social interactions that social pressure is a very powerful force.

    There are a couple ways this manifests in stories.  Often one of them is that an individual is insulted by their friend group or social groups for believing something.  This leads them to change their minds when they face adversity, similarly to Luke 8:11-13 (Parable of the Sower) or Matthew 24:10-13 due to the end times.

    Many of the stories go something like this: "I became a Christian, and I was so happy to tell my friends, but they said I was stupid to believe that."  Now sure, some people become flat earth or anti-vaccine and have a similar beginning to their story.  But these stories often contain another part similar to this: "so then I stopped hanging around Nancy, she said anti-vaccine was dumb, and I met new friends at the anti-vaccine mom's group," etc.  Note that this underscores a choice also: one person chose to give up based on negative social input, the other person only became more galvanized to continue believing like they currently do.  This is another choice: the choice to abandon or to not abandon.