Introspectively, it seems clear to me that it is possible to choose to have faith. It might be, though, that what this “faith” is is a more complicated question than it would initially seem to be. But I can clearly imagine adopting something that very much feels and would seem to work like “faith”.
(Might as well now mention that I’ve been an atheist all my life, and still am. I don’t currently have any faith I know of, except perhaps the thing about a time-continuous self.)
I “chose to have faith” when I had a crisis of faith as a kid. However, after my crisis of faith I no longer actually made predictions based on my faith-beliefs.
“Choosing faith” and actually believing something are very different.
Not making predictions based on faith-beliefs sounds just perfect for what I had in mind here. Maybe it can be characterized as “Doublethink” or “belief in belief (without the actual belief)”, but if so, that’s fine.
The goal would not be to use Faith to make predictions, only to psychologically manipulate oneself.
Introspectively, it seems clear to me that it is possible to choose to have faith. It might be, though, that what this “faith” is is a more complicated question than it would initially seem to be. But I can clearly imagine adopting something that very much feels and would seem to work like “faith”.
(Might as well now mention that I’ve been an atheist all my life, and still am. I don’t currently have any faith I know of, except perhaps the thing about a time-continuous self.)
I “chose to have faith” when I had a crisis of faith as a kid. However, after my crisis of faith I no longer actually made predictions based on my faith-beliefs.
“Choosing faith” and actually believing something are very different.
Not making predictions based on faith-beliefs sounds just perfect for what I had in mind here. Maybe it can be characterized as “Doublethink” or “belief in belief (without the actual belief)”, but if so, that’s fine.
The goal would not be to use Faith to make predictions, only to psychologically manipulate oneself.
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