Philosophical query - is a "belief" even a choice?

...or is it more of an 'occurence' -- you get input. You evaluate it and reach a conclusion. That conclusion may or may not be the one you would have preferred, it is what it is. You "believe" that conclusion.

I pose this because choosing a belief does not seem like a "choice" at all, at least not in the sense that you choose what you want to eat for dinner or something. Because in your mind you know that wanting or not wanting something to be true does not make it so. Rather, belief strikes me as some sort of blend of deductive reasoning combined with an intellectual/emotional "hunch". But not a "choice" as such. I think that's interesting.

You raise a very interesting point, especially in relation to currently accepted thought in that it is possible to pick and choose from a menu of value systems (beliefs). I have never found the logic or reason in being able to hold opposing or conflicting ideas and concepts simultaniously as truth. Isn't what you raise how we should be searching for truth,"it is what it is", not making ones own truth. Do you think we have a "choice" in rejecting or embracing a belief? In some ways a logical person would have to make the logical choice of embracing truth when it is presented, to reject would seem to be illogical.