Believing stuff

I've been wondering about what makes a person believe something they did not believe before. I don't just mean life-after-death, or that God is there, or something really huge. I mean even something mundane, like that a certain product is actually better, or that a new friend is a true "keeper," or that the GPS person (voice speaking) isn't lying (read: mistaken) when they say, "turn right now."

I know it must have to do with trust. Some people will do that better, or more quickly. Others are just plain more skeptical. But are they more discerning, or more scared? Maybe both. Maybe they've been screwed over, and tricked, maybe too they have an analytical and curious mind that must investigate a good bit first. 

Maybe-on the other side-the quicker believers aren't just more susceptible to belief, but willing to growth and try, a bit more readily. They are perhaps flexible in their quests, and not pinned down like rigid thinkers can be.

Besides that-The two opinionated sides of the spectrum: Dogmatic types and Skeptic types are really both stuck. They both will have a difficult time improving, or having the abilities to take in new, useful information, because their minds are, in effect, made up.

What is the psychology at the turning point of belief...

for you, or in general...?

The spiritual (what is beyond the physical) plays a big part.

Discovering/re-discovering God-Continuing Theology

Resistance lives on the fringe of growth, near our periphery. When we have to reconsider what we’ve known, and adjust to realities bigger than what we first realized. God is bigger…always bigger than we figure on. Just when we get a grip on our theology, he will stretch us further. The bounds of his mission, his grace, his love, and his “Otherness” pushes us further on, into this unknown, and really unknowing.

rob bell's video

I saw a quick video of Rob Bell's new book "everything is spiritual" and it was great. he explained how the physical and the spiritual cannot be separated. What is "non spiritual" is actually then misnomer. Hebrew language has no word for spiritual. People by nature are fused with spirituality. In modernity we tend to fracture ourselves into different "lives" sections, arenas, natures... very unnaturally it seems.


I don't know much about Rob Bell. I know he's polarizing. He shakes things up. Some scream he's a heretic. Some think he's just what we need. Some think he's too much of one certain thing. I'd like to meet he, chat for a while, and see for myself, his brief video was though 100% true. We are Gods. We are spiritual in physical shells.