Belief is not a choice, but only a result

Welcome back! I hope you had a good trip. :)I'm happy to focus on whether belief is a choice, however before doing so, I'd like to tidy up the religious side first. In your opening arguments, you stated:"In order for Christianity to have any possible basis, we must all have the ability to believe in it."and"belief/faith as a concept, poses a fatal flaw to veracity of Christianity."After our discussion, it sounds like we can modify this to something we both can agree with, namely:In order for religiously-exclusive Christianity to have any possible basis, we must all have the ability to believe in it.andBelief/faith as a concept, poses a fatal flaw to veracity of religiously-exclusive Christianity.Finally, it seems we both can agree on the following statement:The idea of belief as something we cannot choose does not impact the validity of Christianity that is not religiously-exclusive.Agreed?---On to Belief as a Choice.We've got little time left to discuss this, so I'll try and be as succinct as possible. I'm going to take the argument that belief is not a choice, and see what the consequences of that statement is. Premise 1: We have no choice over our beliefs- In this argument, I'm going to assume this to be true, and see what the fall-out of that assumption isPremise 2: We have free will- I am taking this as assumed for our discussion, because otherwise a discussion about belief as a choice is pointless. If choice doesn't exist, then there's no point in discussion whether belief is a choice. We want to discuss this, so the only way to do so is in the context of free will existing.Premise 3: Our actions are dictated by our beliefs- Any choice that we make is determined by our beliefs about the world around us. "Am I going to buy those headphones?" "No, because I believe I can get a better price a different store." "Am I going press down on the brake pedal?" "Yes, because I believe the red lights I'm seeing mean the car in front of me is slowing down, and I'll crash into it otherwise." Every choice we make is a direct result of what we believe to be the truth. - Anytime we make a decision that seems to go against our beliefs, it's because there's another, stronger belief that is pulling us in a different direction. For example, "Walking through the park is the fastest way to school, but I'm feeling random today, so I'll take the less-direct route." The belief here is that I would feel more satisfied by taking an indirect route. Even if we flip a coin, we chose to do the flip because we believed that flipping was the best course of action.Conclusion 1: We have no choice over our actions. We have no free will.- This directly follows from Premise 1 and Premise 3. If we have no control over our beliefs, and our beliefs dictate our actions, then we have no control over our actions. This is the exact opposite of free will.Conclusion 2: If we have free will, then we have choice over our beliefs - Conclusion 1 is a contradicts premise 2. As I mentioned, we're assuming free will exists in order to have any basis of conversation, so something else has to give. Either P1 is wrong, or P3 is wrong. I can find no examples of a situation in which we make a conscious choice not dictated by our beliefs, so I am confident P3 is true. That means that P1 must be false, in other words, we do have choice over our beliefs.SummaryIn order to have free will, we need to be able to choose our actions. Since all our choices are dictated by our beliefs, then the only way to have free will is to be able to choose our beliefs. No choice of beliefs means no free will, which may be true, but in that case would make any discussion of beliefs being a choice trivial and not worth discussing.---In response to your arguments in Round 3:You stated: "Since when was ignoring evidence the way to the truth? ... However you rationalize it, you must consider all evidence in favor of and against a proposed truth"I agree that if we are searching for truth, considering all the evidence is vital to having a rounded understanding of the world in which we live. However, we are talking about beliefs, not truth, and we are talking about all humans, not just enlightened philosophers.Many people create their beliefs without examining outside evidence. In fact, it is very easy, especially on the Internet, to find examples of people willfully ignoring evidence presented to them in order to maintain their beliefs. They are choosing to tune out contrary evidence because they want to keep believing what they believe. They are choosing to believe what they feel is right, and choosing not to believe anything else, even if there is strong evidence against them.For the CBT example, whether you call it reframing, or including more evidence, the point remains the same. The man in the example is including more information because he wants to change his beliefs. He doesn't want to believe that his wife doesn't love him, so he looks for evidence for some other reason for her lateness. He is making a conscious choice to try and change his beliefs. If he simply had no choice over his beliefs, then he'd just be forced to believe what he believed, and he wouldn't be able to choose to change them. Moreover, if he knows the exact belief he wants to believe (e.g. "My wife loves me"), he can choose to focus solely on evidence supporting that belief, and ignore the rest, thus setting himself up to believe it.Again, please note we're not talking about what is wise, prudent, or finding truth. This discussion is solely focused on the question "Can humans willfully manipulate their own beliefs?"Finally, we change our beliefs based on the evidence we're focused on all the time. Anytime you've hemmed and hawed over a decision, stewing over what the best choice would be, you were changing your beliefs based on your focus. I'll use a similar example to yours about buying headphones on Amazon. Here's a realistic progression of thoughts and beliefs.[Riding the bus home]Thought: "SoundJammer headphones are great. I want them before schools starts tomorrow."Belief: "I should buy these today"[Gets home, and is about to turn on the computer]Thought: "But I know Amazon is having a fall sale starting next week"Belief: "I should not buy them today"[After dinner]Thought: "But these are a limited edition set. Amazon might sell out before next week"Belief: "I should by them today"[Surfing to Amazon]Thought: "But Roger said I could try his EarBlasters tomorrow. He said they were a much better brand"Belief: "I should not buy them today"[Laying in bed]Thought: "But these are a limited edition set. Amazon might sell out, even before tomorrow"Belief: "I should by them today"Throughout this scenario, no new information was learned at any point in time. The only thing that changed is what the person focused on. Their belief changed back and forth, as they weighed the pros and cons, and in the end even doubled back on a consideration a second time. It's human nature to change our beliefs, again and again, as we debate within ourselves. The same can apply to any belief, even a belief in God.