Yes it is. Belief in an idea means that you accept an idea without reason and without reason your choice in rather to accept an idea or not will be a 50/50 shot.
What would it be if not a choice? I think you need to elaborate more if you want this to go anywhere. Sure you can be tricked or deceived into believing something that is not accurate, but that is irrelevant, you choose to believe with the info you are given, so i don't see how it couldn't be a choice.
It's your perception of the information you have taken in. Fact is fact, fiction is fiction, but believing fiction is very much a choice taken by many people. Maybe they don't realize they are believing in fiction, or they are clinging onto it for some other reason, but no rational person would choose to believe something that was fictitious if they KNEW it was. tl;dr People choose to believe silly things or what is knows as true things.
hell yeh it's a choice... you believe something based on your knowledge of it (or lack of knowledge) The world is an open enough place now, that we're exposed to all sorts of ideas and it's up to us to research and 'put in the work' to discover what's worth being believed in based on facts and info about it. Believing without choice is being lazy..we always have a choice.
Yes, belief is a choice because like someone said above it is an "idea", and you have a choice to believe in certain idea's.
the most truthful answer..... it all depends on who you ask...... and when the same person may give you very different answers to a question like at different times in their life... it all depends on everything elts....
lol i knew i'd get some answers regarding religious belief, as per the first few replies but i'm not even talking in the sense of spirituality, per-se... Because if you believe there is no God, that's still a belief... If you believe there are or are not gov't coverups, those are forms of belief... etc I see people have said it's your choice to believe with the info given... But isn't that more a choice of what information you divulge rather than a choice on how the information is interpreted and belief applied? Example.... Two people are given the exact same information. One believes one way about it, the other believes differently about it I mean, in my eyes, people can't normally help how they feel (or believe) about any given subject. Is belief not moreso determined by cumulative life experience first, and then information you choose to absorb? And if the above is true, wouldn't that mean belief is not really a matter of choice?
in this case^^^^^ i believe/think that for some it is a conscious choice....while other decide without much thought involved....simply following the path they see others following...or have followed in the past themselves..... again...all depends on who you ask ...and when
Hmm, i don't know if i made my statement clear eneough... Cause it's really hard to get the full idea across actually lol Ok, some say it's a choice you have to make in order to believe in Jesus... You choose to believe, or you choose not to (thus you make the choice to go to hell or not ) But some people, based on their knowledge, can't believe in this. It's their prior knowledge about.... whatever they are knowledgeable of... that makes this "choice" for them, correct? How is something as strong as belief simply a choice? Another example, it'd be nice to believe that belief is a choice, but based on the knowledge i have about things in general, I can't come to the conclusion that belief is a choice So, should i just choose to believe that is IS choice?
I don't think it's empirically reasonable to conclude either way. Perhaps it is most fruitful to approach the subject of belief with the binarism of both perspectives in mind.
What if it just depends on what you believe? I think it can be sometimes, unless it's a belief founded in scientific data and factual information. Like I believe the shirt I'm wearing is blue. I guess I could choose to believe it's orange, but... it isn't and my brain won't let me REALLY believe that, so I think it really depends.
This is kind of along the lines of what i'm saying, except i think it applies to all belief I believe there is a God. I can't really choose to believe otherwise based on, as you put it, what my brain tells me. Atheists believe in no God. They can't really choose to believe otherwise, because of what their brain tells them. You can choose what information you receive to help form your beliefs, sure, but can you really choose what you truly believe?
All depends on your programming.. A simple programmer will let his past experiences choose his interpretation. A self-programmer uses free will to decide his interpretation. Both ways involve choice, but one with much more control than the other. All beliefs should have at least a hint of rational thinking IMO. Programming and Metaprogramming in the Human Biocomputer
if events in your life took place which did in fact(im not saying they would) change your mind about what you believe.......regardless if it is religion or the type of food or music you believe you like.... if you went thru something that made you see things differently...you may in fact then chose to alter your belief....or not.... you do decide in the end.... now once a desicion has been made...wether on the surface or somewhere deep with in.....once it has been made...you can solidify it to the point where it becomes unshakeable!!!!!! and tomorrow some shit you never expect could come along and change your mind entirely....and you may infact chose to believe differently from then on....or not...it is in the end up to you some make the choices themselves..... others just follow..... "if you chose not to decide....you still have made a choice"
People believe things because it feels right to them. It doesn't mean they are right, nor that they will always feel this way, but as long as they do, then it's both right and real for them. It doesn't mean anyone else needs to agree or accept what they believe, and why the hell would you? You'd have to feel what they feel and who can say they feel exactly what someone else does? And just because they hold this belief, it shouldn't cause anyone else to feel higher/better/more enlightened as a result. Yes, some people choose to believe all sorts of things. We're all looking for the highest truth we can find that feels real, and as we find it, we may choose to follow what we understand by how it makes us feel. But it's a journey. At some point along the way, we may have an experience of such an existential nature that it changes this idea or belief into a feeling of knowing certainty that we're on the right track, and that is not only very affirming, but brings a tremendous feeling of peace with it.
I don't think that belief is a choice, you either believe or you don't believe a certain way. There have been times in my life when it would have been simpler for me to just believe in something, but no matter how much I tried I couldn't believe that way, I do think that faith can be a choice though. For example some people may not believe in something but they can choose to have blind faith that it is true... I guess.