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I have heard it said that "one cannot choose what one believes." But is this really true?
How much success do you think you could have in believing that you could breathe underwater, or teleport, or control the weather with the power of your mind? Not using some trick or technicality (e.g., "the power of SCUBA allows me to breathe underwater!" or "one day humans will build technology to allow weather control, and brain-computer interactions are already a thing") but in a reasonable and contemporary context?
I think for those who want to believe something, they can find a way to believe it.
If one managed to believe in the examples I gave, it would be tantamount to giving oneself mental illness. Which is what @ek's examples demonstrated, where the desire to believe was so overwhelming that the mind snapped. Is that what you mean?
There's a spectrum, obviously, just as there's a spectrum to the extent we can change our talents. All I'm saying is that belief isn't 100% externally imparted and our choices do have some influence. And perhaps insanity is just the extreme end of that spectrum.
I have heard it said that "one cannot choose what one believes." But is this really true? It seems neither more or less plausible than a statement like "one cannot choose one's talents". While both are true in some ways---we cannot choose what we are naturally gifted at, nor do we choose the circumstances we grow up in which influences our beliefs---it seems incorrect to suggest that we have no influence on our talents or our beliefs. I think for those who want to believe something, they can find a way to believe it.