Reply #142: This word "choice" is problematic [View All]

[moggie]

We tend to think of "choice" as an immediate thing: "what should we eat tonight: Italian or Mexican?" Viewed in that way, religion isn't a choice for most people. I certainly couldn't decide right now that I'll be religious from now on. But if you look at choice as a more gradual process, I think the answer is different. For example, if you're religious but are having doubts, you could choose to think things through no matter where this led, or you could choose to push your doubts to the back of your mind and throw yourself into church activities. Those two choices are quite likely to have different outcomes. For college, you could choose to study science, or English. A large majority of scientists are non-religious, regardless of what they believed before their degrees, whereas studying English probably has little effect on existing beliefs. If you're a recovering alcoholic, you could choose to join a recovery group which emphasises God's help, or a secular one, and a lot of people who make the former choice come out of it more religious. And so on. The choices we make mould us, though it's often a gradual process.