Stefan Molyneux was recently on The Scott Adams School show talking about the existence of God with one fo the show’s hosts, Owen Gregorian. Molyneux was arguing against the idea of gods in relation to philosophy and Gregorian argued the other side. Gregorian mentioned that belief in gods or faith in gods is a choice. Now, he may not have actually meant it in a rigorous, literal way (or maybe he did, I don’t know) because this was no formal debate, just a friendly, off the cuff discussion, but I think that most people probably truly think this way, that beliefs are choices, and I wanted to correct that for anyone who’s interested.
French philosopher and mathematician, Blaise Pascal, is famous for many things, including Pascal’s Wager. There’s a lot that has been said about the wager and I can’t add anything new, but I only want to use it for a basic purpose. The wager goes like this: If God exists and you believe in him, you gain eternal blessings. If you’re wrong and he doesn’t exist, you lose nothing. If God doesn’t exist and you believe in him, you gain nothing. If you’re wrong and he does exist, you gain eternal damnation.
The problem with the wager that I want to highlight is the fact that you can’t choose to believe. You’re either convinced or you aren’t. If you aren’t convinced of that idea, try this; have a friend count to three, and, on three, start believing in unicorns. Yeah, really believe in them. Then, on the count of three, stop believing in them.
If you tried that, you couldn’t do it. You can say you believe, but saying something and even really, really wanting to believe in something doesn’t mean you actually believe in it. You actually believe in gravity. That’s why you’d be careful on the edge of the roof of a 50-story building. That’s real belief. You can absolutely have that level of belief in gods, but that’s what real belief looks like. It isn’t just something you say or wish for and if you can introspect (not everyone can) you may be able to discover whether or not you truly believe.
Many who profess belief don’t truly believe. They say that they do because of tribal pressure or a subconscious fear of death or the promise of being reunited with loved ones. Regardless, there’s only one way to truly believe in anything and that’s to be convinced of it in some way. There are many ways you might become convinced of this or that, but belief requires convincing. If you aren’t convinced of something, somehow, then you do not believe it.
As I said, this is nothing new; other people have made similar points, but some things are worth repeating.
