Do we choose our beliefs?

Do we weigh up different arguments, judge the reality of their statements and choose what is best to believe? Certainly in politics their is much to pick and choose about what action is best and I guess that constitutes a chosen belief. But with science and philosophy not a lot changes as the years roll past, from the moment I decided I should write my own philosophy I have felt a direction to my understanding. It was nearly twenty years ago that I read a philosophy book and believed I could write my own. Back then I believed I understood something that was yet to be articulated, I had the outline of an idea that may change philosophy. In those years I've taken a few different paths, but not many, progress has definitely occurred, all be it slow progress, my understanding of my idea has improved greatly and at some points it has felt complete.

I believe everyone who has ideas that can change any field of academia has a direction to which they aim. A lot of people have no aim for their understanding, they don't continually question themselves and look to have better knowledge. It's a shame this kind of philosophy isn't taught in schools, instead of just forcing knowledge onto children, encourage curiosity in their minds so they gain a direction to their learning, an idea they want to have a greater understanding of. My father is in his seventies and he is still trying to improve his knowledge, he has found a part of modern science that he wants, not just to understand, but to try and contribute to. Within my own learning, it is still the same problem that I encountered twenty years ago, but now I can approach the same problem from many different angles, it is still at the center but I have added enough of a boundary to contain it.

The final step is to try and write my philosophy, to put down on paper a thesis I am happy with and I have tried many times and have failed to get further than a few thousand words. That's why I do these blogs, I think about the book more than once or twice a day and I know in my heart that soon I will be ready to express the entire theory. Did I choose these beliefs? The original idea hit me so hard, I had a vision, a premonition of what I could write about and that direction has not left me, as I have slowly added weight to the theory, slowly opened up the problem and contained it in a solution. My thinking about philosophy is part of my soul, and all the beliefs I have circle that understanding, maybe some science fiction and some politics I pick and choose, but most of my beliefs are caught up in a thick web of different judgements.