View Full Version : Can a belief change a person?
When, for example, we hear about someone who went to prison and found god and changed their ways, do you believe that to be true?
Sometimes it is true, sometimes it isn't. For every person that finds God and truly turns their life around, there is another that finds God and doesn't. New religion can give you a goal, even a reason to get clean or to straighten your life up, but it's personal strength that makes it happen (or not).
One of my favorite examples of this is from the world of professional wrestling. My favorite tag team as a kid was the Rockers--Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels. Eventually, both got hooked on drugs, and both found Jesus. Shawn has been clean ever since, but Marty has fallen off the wagon a dozen times. So why did God work for one and not the other? Because Marty is weak and Shawn is strong.
CutsieMarie89
10-16-08, 03:54 PM
I do believe that a single event can change your life, but like all habits you have to want to end it, you really have to want to. It's hard and I have the utmost sympathy and understanding for drug users, alcoholics, and smokers...etc who want to quit, It is not an easy ordeal. I've been trying to break a bad habit for the better part of 10 years or so now, but I haven't succeeded, I obviously don't want to give it up that bad.
One of my favorite examples of this is from the world of professional wrestling. My favorite tag team as a kid was the Rockers--Marty Jannetty and Shawn Michaels. Eventually, both got hooked on drugs, and both found Jesus. Shawn has been clean ever since, but Marty has fallen off the wagon a dozen times. So why did God work for one and not the other? Because Marty is weak and Shawn is strong.
Then Vince went and did a God angle. I'm surprised that HBK went for that.
one_raven
10-16-08, 04:34 PM
When, for example, we hear about someone who went to prison and found god and changed their ways, do you believe that to be true?
Of course.
Sometimes it's a lie.
Sometimes it's a self-delusion.
Sometimes it's real.
Why wouldn't it be possible?
I know that rehabilitation is possible, when people see the errors of their ways. If they do that without "finding Jesus", wouldn't that still be a case of belief changing a person? They believe now, that this is the right way to act.
Then Vince went and did a God angle. I'm surprised that HBK went for that.
I gave up on wrestling before that, but I did keep track of it...and yeah, that was messed up. I think HBK felt he needed to repay Vince for letting him come back and be HBK Lite, rather than the raunchy little bastard that he used to be.
cosmictraveler
10-16-08, 08:21 PM
They change their ways because of prison, not God. If they wanted to change to begin with they would have found this God you speak about long before they were sent off to prison don't you think?
Betrayer0fHope
10-16-08, 09:52 PM
Imagine if someone came up behind you, and screamed BE THE BEST YOU CAN OR I WILL SHOOT YOU WITH THIS GUN, AND OBEY THIS BOOK *THROWS BIBLE AT YOU*. We don't know whether the gun exists or not, and some think it does and some do not. If someone is the best they can be, and they believed the gun existed, who's responsible for it?
Varda
Can a belief change a person?
Depends on the belief and on the person.
Leo Volont
10-17-08, 07:24 AM
It is not so much that a BELIEF changes their life. What is really happening is that a person leaves one set of friends and joins in with another. it is a matter of a Sheep moving from one wild herd of maraudering sheep and taking membership instead with a herd of well groomed and securely fenced good sheep.
Most idiot people do not have the mental wherewithall to actually have much of an effect on their own behavior. Habit is strong. Will power is weak. But if these stupid morons can only leave one room full of gangster hoods and walk into the next room of respectable working people, then there life will automatically change, by doing what they have always done... going along with ambient peer pressure. Good peer pressure just happens to be better than bad peer pressure... but the force of the peer pressure is always just about the same.
When, for example, we hear about someone who went to prison and found god and changed their ways, do you believe that to be true?
Baron Max
10-17-08, 08:07 AM
When, for example, we hear about someone who went to prison and found god and changed their ways, do you believe that to be true?
Interesting. But also, isn't "love" just another belief? And how many people in the world change their lives for love?
And, of course, the opposite is true - they finally come to realize that their "love" is no more, so they change their lives again ...divorce!
Baron Max
Spud Emperor
10-17-08, 08:10 AM
Baron Max has come to believe he is a sour twisted, old fuck and so it is.
clusteringflux
10-17-08, 09:18 AM
What is even more remarkable is when god/belief changes a person physically.
Betrayer0fHope
10-18-08, 12:29 AM
Love seems to be more of an addiction than a belief.
Beliefs change, but the individual nature of humans never do.
"Believe, if thou wilt, that mountains change their place, but believe not that man changes his nature."
- Muhammad
Kadark
one_raven
10-18-08, 12:33 AM
Beliefs change, but the individual nature of humans never do.
Wouldn't you then need to define objectively where nature ends and nurture begins?
If you can do that, I'll be praising your Nobel Prize win.
Wouldn't you then need to define objectively where nature ends and nurture begins?
If you can do that, I'll be praising your Nobel Prize win.
Sorry, I'm not that abstract.
We'll save that question for the philosophers. :cool:
Kadark
one_raven
10-18-08, 12:36 AM
Then how can you be sure that "Beliefs change, but the individual nature of humans never do"?
Because of life experience.
Why don't you stop being such an inquisitive dick?
Kadark
one_raven
10-18-08, 12:40 AM
Because of life experience.
:rolleyes: Non-answer.
Why don't you stop being such an inquisitive dick?
I don't equate inquisitiveness with being a dick.
Perhaps if you did not, you could either answer the question, or revisit what you think you are so sure about.
If you can't say where nature ends, how can you say that man can not change his nature.
I'm not saying you don't have some notion of where nature ends - I'm just wondering what you think that is.
Betrayer0fHope
10-18-08, 12:41 AM
Kadark, what you first must tell us, is what is human nature.
raven,
You want to know the truth? I'm too lazy to explain it. It's 2:00 AM.
Kadark
one_raven
10-18-08, 12:45 AM
You want to know the truth? I'm too lazy to explain it. It's 2:00 AM.
Fair enough.
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