Do we choose to believe?

Its an interesting question I feel. Does one really choose to believe that they are in fact alive and breathing? Try for a moment to decide that you no longer believe this. Can you do it? Now try to convince yourself that the entire continent of North America does not exist. This is much easier for some of us to do, especially if you live on a different continent. If you do happen to live in North America, you could convince yourself that you have been lied to and are not actually living on a continent and that your entire existence has been artificial and that some strange entity with amazing powers is building the world for you as you go through your life and see new places. Can you convince yourself of this?

Why do people hold beliefs in the first place? What good does it do us to believe something? Seems to me that the best explanation for holding beliefs is to allow us to do the right things, such as avoiding injury or death. Any rational person believes that they will drown if they submerge themselves underwater for too long. They also believe they will die if they jump off of a cliff or a tall building. Most of us also believe that we will most definitely get hurt when we walk in the path of a locomotive or motor vehicle. So beliefs are very important, for our protection.

We may also believe things to give ourselves a sense of security, a way of feeling that our lives are predictable. Belief systems are based on what is normal to us as individuals. For example, I believe that the sun will rise again tomorrow, that my regular job will still be there when I go to it, that all my friends and family members are safe and that I can go see them at any time, and that the world outside my home is very safe. This is all normal to me, so I believe all these things. It can be very stressful when anything happens that would disrupt my normal everyday beliefs. If someone I cared about died in a car accident, or committed a serious criminal offense my beliefs about these people change. When I see that a family member is being buried I from then on recognize that that person is gone. In the beginning this is very very stressful but as time goes by, it becomes normal and life continues without the person. Same case if say, a close family member whom I trust and adore commits a horrible criminal act that I would never imagine that they could commit. My previous beliefs about this person are completely changed.

Now think for a moment. Lets imagine a rational, intelligent, and logically thinking person with an intact and sound mind. We will call this person "person A". Person A has a relative, Person B. Person A adores Person B, and loves this person with all their heart because of how great they are. Person A believes that Person B Is kind, honest, caring, dependable, and trustworthy. Person A believes these things because all throughout their life Person B has demonstrated these qualities multiple times. Lets say, that while Person B has done many things around Person A that would support reasons to believe these things, Person B has also done many things when Person A is not around that would support the exact contrary. One day, Person B is committing a terrible, horrible crime and Person A happens to witness this. Person A, being a decent individual does what is right and notifies the authorities and has Person B arrested. Now that Person A has seen these actions, Person A is no longer able to believe that Person B is a kind, honest, caring, trustworthy individual because the deed that has been done and the evidence not only show contrary to all the above attributes, but also show that Person B has been committing acts such as this for many years. Person A, even if he/she wants to cannot choose to hold the same beliefs that were held previously. Now that Person A has seen Person B's true colors there is absolutely no choosing to go back to the previous beliefs that Person B was a decent individual.
If a person of sound mind, such as Person A does happen to continue to believe that Person B is still a decent person, this still is not a choice. Person A is simply unable to comprehend the truth. What Person B had been doing might be interpreted in a way that does not change the way Person A sees Person B. It may be too complicated for Person A to understand or make the correct connections(a person of sound mind is not necessarily intelligent). Or perhaps Person A is delusional(intelligent people can be delusional). Either way, truth is truth, even if Person A avoided examining evidence that would prove that Person B committed such acts, what remains is still not choice, especially if Person A is completely comfortable after ignoring evidence. Also, if Person A was avoiding evidence out of fear that they might discover that Person B is in fact not what he/she thought they were there would be a loss of security for Person A, because their belief on what kind of person Person B is, is now going to be in a state of "limbo" because Person A is not examining this evidence thoroughly either out of fear or out of incompetence. Person A may constantly tell him/herself that Person B is still a decent person, that what Person B did was not wrong but deep down inside Person A will always know what really was seen as long as Person A is of sound mind. Person A may never come to a solid conclusion about Person B's actions and not necessarily out of choice..

A choice in the situation above would be to examine evidence thoroughly, and to apply critical thinking to the observed actions of Person B. We can choose not to go through the effort of discovering something through investigating and using critical thinking but the discovery itself is NOT a choice. In other words, what we discover after we examine and think about something is all based on wether we choose to search in the correct places and wether or not we are capable of processing the collected data correctly. The correct answer remains the same regardless of how many people arrive at the wrong answer. And those who arrive at the wrong answer, are no more "choosing" to accept the wrong answer than the ones who arrived at the correct answer. In other words, wether Person A is right or wrong is not Person A's choice, but rather it is based on Person A's ability to examine evidence and draw the correct conclusions, also on competence and ability to look at unbiased data, such as looking somewhere that Person A feels uneasy about because Person A feels there will be an answer that he/she will not like. Denial is NOT the result of choosing not to believe it is more of a delusional way of continuing on with life as it was in spite of a new realization.
So belief is not a choice! Its simply a "conclusion" based upon examination of evidence and it is either correct or incorrect. At least that's how I feel as of right now.