Til Doubt Do Us Part

Here you go create another fable
You wanted to

The issue of whether or not one can willingly choose to believe something (or willingly choose not to) is a discussion-worthy topic in its own right. Particularly since our beliefs are an important part of who we are. And of how we build our identities.

For instance, let’s say I inquire about whether you believe every human being should have free and equal access to healthcare. It’s probable that you will not be easily persuaded to change your viewpoint – whatever that may be. Perhaps not even to reconsider it. And it follows that you would be bewildered if I inquired whether that belief is actually your belief. Yes, yours. Is that belief your own? If there’s something we have no doubt about is that our beliefs are ours, willingly chosen, even ours to keep.

Til doubt do us part.

Why’d you leave the keys upon the table?
You wanted to

Research has shown that our beliefs are susceptible to manipulation, with results indicating that “political attitudes and partisan divisions can be far more flexible than what is assumed by the polls, and that people can reason about the factual issues of [a] campaign with considerable openness to change.”

Similarly, research “results suggest a dramatic potential for flexibility in our moral attitudes, and indicates a clear role for self-attribution and post-hoc rationalization in attitude formation and change.”

Which makes it worthwhile to acknowledge that our beliefs are (can be) as fluid as our identities: “I make, remake and unmake my concepts along a moving horizon, from an always decentered centre, from an always displaced periphery which repeats and differentiates them.”