Reply #11: One could also argue that we may well have no choices at all... [View All]

[Silent3]

...on any matter, not just beliefs. We could live in a totally deterministic world, or maybe a world which is partially deterministic but varied by random factors which are as equally beyond our control as the deterministic factors.

If the concept of choice, and the related notion of free will, have any meaning at all, however, it's interesting to consider what exactly it is that we have choices about. Just so you know, I'm mostly agree with what you're saying in the OP and I certainly identify with your frustration in the way some people discuss "choice" of beliefs, but I'd also like to play devil's advocate here a bit, and dig a little deeper.

For instance, why bother starting this thread unless you feel you there's some chance, however small, of changing minds with what you write? If minds can be changed by your words, is there any choice involved in whether or not changes are allowed to occur? Is being open to reading what you say a choice? Is how your words affect a reader partly a choice of the reader? If stubbornness or ego or fear make it difficult for someone to accept something you're saying, is there choice in whether or not the reader recognizes those impediments and sets them aside?

If any of those things are choices, then I think you can say there is an element of choice in belief to the extent there is choice in what you're willing to consider, and reconsider, that might bring you reject current beliefs and accept new ones.