I doubt it's so universal as that, though.
Whenever my beliefs have changed, it's never been conscious. It's always been gradual and mostly automatic based on the sorts of things I'm exposed to.
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We can't choose to believe?
- Thread starter Quintessence
- Start date
I doubt it's so universal as that, though.
Whenever my beliefs have changed, it's never been conscious. It's always been gradual and mostly automatic based on the sorts of things I'm exposed to.
Kueid
Avant-garde
There's nothing wrong about that, unless you wanted to hand pick yours beliefs for whatever reason, then I think you should learn how to do it. Needless to say that we are all in the same boat, regardless of beliefs or choices over beliefs. I believe in that.
Draka
Wonder Woman
Cool. Could you please tell me how to believe something I know to not be true as everything I know goes counter to it? I'd really like to learn how to believe the Earth is a flat disc which sets upon a giant egg roll floating in space. How do I simply make myself truly believe that so that I am afraid of falling off the edge? Please tell me.
Kueid
Avant-garde
First, let me say to you that there is levels of difficulty depending how deep rooted the belief is. Second, I can't possibly know right now how to teach this ability to you cause I didn't learn it from a teacher, I developed it on my own and it is a process that runs in the background of my mind. Third, if you really want to know how to do it there is some NLP techniques that can help you out with specific contexts, just find then for your self, don't be lazy.
You'd have to ask the author of the article. I wouldn't have said such things, and the absurdity of that (and my own existence blatantly contradicting what he said) is part of why I disagree with that perspective.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Playing the devil's advocate a sec, using a ludicrous example is hardly sound reasoning in all cases. In regards to choosing beliefs, I will agree that it is not the norm, but there are histories of people who accepted Islam AFTER they were captured and had little other choices. Such conversions, especially among Muhammad's captured wives, were obviously not heartfelt choices to believe the Islamic credo, however after many years, they adopted the ideas - therefore they did consciously choose what to believe - albeit in the absence of other meaningful choices and to ensure their survival.
I don't recall saying such a thing. Not sure where you got this from. Paradigm shifting and seeing multiple truths instead of a single truth still uses those things, and I'm kind of confused as to how you got the impression otherwise. When was the last time you used your imagination? Have you ever been an actor? Role-played? Did you have to throw out evidence, experience, facts, and reason when doing those things? Paradigm shifting isn't much different from that - it's going "yeah, I usually use this map of the territory, but for a while I'm going to use this map." Each map has its pattern to it - it's a matter of learning how to read it. You're saying you can't do that, and the people who can have defective thinking or reasoning abilities?
Is there any particular reason why you're picking a ridiculously extreme example? Did you read the earlier post I linked to at all? I'm going to guess not, because I don't think you would have asked this question if you'd read it.
YmirGF
Bodhisattva in Recovery
Could you dumb this down for us knuckledraggers?
Draka
Wonder Woman
Pretending and imagining is not the same as honestly believing something. I can pretend with my children that we are knights fighting this huge dragon that has invaded our home, but I certainly don't believe it to be a reality. Entertaining a silly idea and playing "what ifs" in one's head are not the same as believing. Saying you believe in something is not the same as actually believing. You can give lip service to anything, it doesn't mean you actually believe what you are giving service to. Belief is different. And it is not a conscious choice.
It's not a ridiculously extreme example. It is an honest one to show you the simple fact that one cannot choose to just believe something merely because they are told to or want to. To do so, to go against your own brain's reasoning ability is to show an imbalance in one's thinking and reasoning abilities.
And yes, I did read that post. My question is still valid. In your post you said that you found the challenges in the first paragraph of the quote in the OP "easy". If they are easy, if changing your complete understanding of all math concepts, honestly changing the way you understand math is "easy" then there is something wrong with reasoning ability. This is why I said I don't believe you that you could do that. I'd like to think you are a reasonable and rational intelligent person. Therefore, I simply do not believe you that you could honestly believe those things.
"If convinced" means that information or an argument changed you.
paarsurrey
Veteran Member
Yes, of course. Information, arguments, signs ,wisdom, experience could change one.
Regards
psychoslice
Veteran Member
Every choice we make is made through our conditioning and programming, so we don't really make any choices, and because of our conditioning and programming we have no choice.
I mean to say that then it's not your doing. Not your choice.
Give credit where credit is due.
Sounds like a cop out.
psychoslice
Veteran Member
It does sound like that, but it isn't, just don't tell the ignorant or they will use it to their advantage.Sounds like a cop out.
@Draka Pardon, I don't see much purpose to continuing this conversation with you, since it seems you just want to argue, insinuate not very nice thing about people for being different than you, use unreasonably extreme examples to "prove" (hardly) a point, and invalidate others experiences instead of taking them at their word.
Draka
Wonder Woman
By the way, how much is 4+9 in your world now?
So for the people who choose to believe this...
... what do you think about personal accomplishments, then? Would that phrase be an oxymoron, since no accomplishments (or deeds of infamy) could be personal? Everything you are is a mere result of system inputs, right? Hmm. Then one also has to wonder... if this is the case... how does one justify locking people up in jails? Why do we have a legal system that is predicated on the assumption of free will, and that there is a choice? Why do we have a culture that celebrates individual accomplishments, under the assumption of individual choices leading to success or failure? Hmm.