If We Don't Choose Our Beliefs, How Can We Be Compelled To Believe?

 

A philosopher FB friend of mine wrote this provocative post that seemed to get a lot of positive feedback: 

“If it's true that beliefs are caused rather than chosen, then the idea in Christian theology that the only thing a person can do in order to be saved is believe that Christ died for their sins etc - which presumes people can choose what to believe, then that entire line of thinking is incoherent. You'll need to rethink Christianity and we'll have to rethink these philosophies, but what we can't do is defiantly cling to an idea that is almost certainly false.”

But I don’t think it’s right, so here is my brief take on it, which may be of interest to some:

I don’t think it’s quite right to say “that Christian doctrine is incoherent if we don’t choose our beliefs” – I think it’s more involved than that. I think it’s correct that beliefs are caused rather than chosen, and also correct that the only thing a person can do in order to be saved is believe that Christ is Lord, died for our sins, and so forth. But that doesn’t mean we “need to rethink Christianity”, because beliefs, causes and commitments are more complicated than that.

Because, although we don’t choose our beliefs, we do influence what we go on to believe by our actions and influences, and we increase or decrease the probability of belief based on the decisions we make. For example, an insecure hermit may not currently believe that there is much value for them in experiencing travel. At point 1, they could not choose to believe in the value of travel. But with a series of micro-steps, they might find after a while their confidence has increased to the level that they have started to enjoy their trips, and eventually they may even reach a place where they value being well-travelled beyond their wildest expectations.

Similarly, while we can’t choose to accept Jesus if our current state is one of unbelief, we can make decisions and undertake a series of micro-steps (pray, read the Bible, go to church, aim for higher goodness, practice deeper forgiveness, read Christian theology, etc) that gradually lead us to belief, where at an earlier point on the journey we weren’t able to believe.