I don’t agree that belief is always a choice, in many cases people simply cannot conceive of an alternate position being the case, in my case I have no choice but to be an atheist because I can’t believe in a god, I find it far too silly a notion.
bigoted beliefs are of course bad, but I don’t think people choose them necessarily
But you are making a choice: you’re choosing to only let observable facts influence your beliefs. Everyone is an atheist by default, and most of them are then told to believe what they’re told from birth, but at some point people make a conscious choice on how information is prioritized. Humans aren’t read-only and I would say it’s a safe bet that most people have the opportunity to influence their own beliefs and act accordingly. Obviously if someone is abused and doesn’t develop mentally, then yeah, don’t hate the person but don’t necessarily give up on helping that person develop, either
I don’t agree that belief is always a choice, in many cases people simply cannot conceive of an alternate position being the case, in my case I have no choice but to be an atheist because I can’t believe in a god, I find it far too silly a notion.
bigoted beliefs are of course bad, but I don’t think people choose them necessarily
But you are making a choice: you’re choosing to only let observable facts influence your beliefs. Everyone is an atheist by default, and most of them are then told to believe what they’re told from birth, but at some point people make a conscious choice on how information is prioritized. Humans aren’t read-only and I would say it’s a safe bet that most people have the opportunity to influence their own beliefs and act accordingly. Obviously if someone is abused and doesn’t develop mentally, then yeah, don’t hate the person but don’t necessarily give up on helping that person develop, either
Everyone thinks they only let observable facts influence their beliefs
You’ve proved my point. You’re choosing not to believe because it’s not fact.
I don’t choose to believe facts
That’s not what I said. I said you’re choosing not to believe things which are not facts.
I’m incapable of choosing what convinces me
You have stated yourself that you are. How unfortunate that you can’t see it.
I did not say that at all?