Comments on: Choosing Belief or Disbelief and the Limits of Agency http://mormonmonsters.com/2010/02/choosing-belief-or-disbelief-and-the-limits-of-agency/ At the edge of faith, there be monsters Fri, 24 Feb 2012 15:32:56 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2 By: Hosea http://mormonmonsters.com/2010/02/choosing-belief-or-disbelief-and-the-limits-of-agency/comment-page-1/#comment-38 Hosea Fri, 19 Feb 2010 06:09:29 +0000 http://mormonmonsters.com/?p=60#comment-38 <blockquote>If it is just a temporary perception on my part, it feels so convincingly strong that I cannot imagine how I could accomplish a return to belief. It feels so convincingly strong that I wonder if I actually ever chose non-belief or if it was forced on me by circumstance.</blockquote> Would it be fair to say that, at one time, you felt belief convincingly strong, such that you could not imagine how it might change?

If it is just a temporary perception on my part, it feels so convincingly strong that I cannot imagine how I could accomplish a return to belief. It feels so convincingly strong that I wonder if I actually ever chose non-belief or if it was forced on me by circumstance.

Would it be fair to say that, at one time, you felt belief convincingly strong, such that you could not imagine how it might change?

]]> By: Micah http://mormonmonsters.com/2010/02/choosing-belief-or-disbelief-and-the-limits-of-agency/comment-page-1/#comment-36 Micah Fri, 19 Feb 2010 05:18:24 +0000 http://mormonmonsters.com/?p=60#comment-36 Interesting post, Nahum. In reflecting on my own journey, I don't feel that I "chose" belief. Neither did I choose disbelief. An intense spiritual/emotional experience in my adolescence compelled me to accept belief. To have chosen to disbelieve would have been the rejection of this powerful experience, the rejection of "reality," as I then interpreted it. Likewise, later in life, disbelief arrived in an instant of perception that I could not deny. To have refused to accept it would have been to turn away from reality, rationality, and truth. Truth, at least, to the degree that I was able to comprehend it. I honestly don't know if it was possible for me to have chosen to disbelieve the realities once I acknowledged them. To have done so would have been to willfully choose fantasy, untruth, delusion. Not really an option. To choose to believe something you know (or at least strongly suspect) to be false is the road to ineffective living, delusion and insanity. Interesting post, Nahum. In reflecting on my own journey, I don’t feel that I “chose” belief. Neither did I choose disbelief. An intense spiritual/emotional experience in my adolescence compelled me to accept belief. To have chosen to disbelieve would have been the rejection of this powerful experience, the rejection of “reality,” as I then interpreted it.

Likewise, later in life, disbelief arrived in an instant of perception that I could not deny. To have refused to accept it would have been to turn away from reality, rationality, and truth. Truth, at least, to the degree that I was able to comprehend it.

I honestly don’t know if it was possible for me to have chosen to disbelieve the realities once I acknowledged them. To have done so would have been to willfully choose fantasy, untruth, delusion. Not really an option.

To choose to believe something you know (or at least strongly suspect) to be false is the road to ineffective living, delusion and insanity.

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