Hi all, great thread! and Anonymous,

The scientist in me is just jumping up and down so I gotta pipe in.

Belief is choice. If you choose to sit on a chair, you believe it will hold you up - somewhere unconsiously, from all the chairs that you have sat in before. A lot of our beliefs are based in experience.

The physical reality is that anything is possible. This is stated in God's Word and by physicists. According to the physics community, the chair does not have to hold you up - it just does time after time.

Just as we can accept the scientific theory of probablility, then even the things that seem to not be optional or obvious aren't so obvious after all. We operate with expectations, trust, and assumptions.

Now, theories come and go, but the Word is true regardless. (I liked what Hannah Smith wrote about things not being true because they are in the Bible, but they are in the Bible because they are true). But to appeal to you intellectual question, I used a scientific analogy. (I also think it is a beautiful theory.)

Webster's Dictionary says that belief is an acceptance of truth. The word acceptance implies choice. Maybe it seems to you that there are some things you have to accept and have no choice about it, if I understand your question.

I don't think that there are such things as truths we necessarily have to accept. There are things we must accept, but not because they are necessarily true - if that makes sense.

I do believe that there are things that are necessarily true and absolute truth, by His grace. But I also believe that I was created to choose truth. So if He set it up that way, then He was (and is) extremely creative with reality. He would have to be!

I also think it is super exciting and amazing the implications of verses such as these:

Matt. 19:26, "And looking upon them Jesus said to them, "With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."

Luke 1:37, "For nothing will be impossible with God."

It is awe inspiring to think of these verses in terms of His power, but they also speaks of our perceptions - and misperceptions.

Hope this helps!
fww