02-02-2019, 09:09 PM
I only take issue with the expression "choose to believe." I don't think that we can really choose to believe things. If something convinces us, we believe it. If it doesn't convince us, we don't believe it. To some extent, we can choose what information we look at and what information we ignore – but even that not fully.
If I told you to choose to believe that a stapler is a telephone, you might pretend with me and put the thing against your ear. You will not be able to choose to believe that you can place calls with a stapler, though. Unless something extraordinary happened such that the stapler really started ringing or you heard a voice through the hole where the staples come out! Perhaps someone wired a stapler to work like a phone, so that it is a stapler in shape but a phone in function.
Unless you have such evidence, you will not believe that a stapler is a telephone under normal circumstances.
You do not have much control over what you believe (or, more generally, what you think – which is always influenced by something outside of your control).
If I told you to choose to believe that a stapler is a telephone, you might pretend with me and put the thing against your ear. You will not be able to choose to believe that you can place calls with a stapler, though. Unless something extraordinary happened such that the stapler really started ringing or you heard a voice through the hole where the staples come out! Perhaps someone wired a stapler to work like a phone, so that it is a stapler in shape but a phone in function.
Unless you have such evidence, you will not believe that a stapler is a telephone under normal circumstances.
You do not have much control over what you believe (or, more generally, what you think – which is always influenced by something outside of your control).
## Steps off soapbox.