Choosing Faith: The Importance of Belief in Finding Purpose in Life

A belief is a judgment that we assume to be true when making life decisions. Our beliefs cannot conclusively be proven true or false. Beliefs can be as simple as our preference for food or as profound as our religious beliefs. How are beliefs different from knowledge or opinion? How do beliefs develop and change over time and how do they become the foundation of our purpose in life? This book is divided into three sections. The first explains how beliefs are formed in childhood and modified and adapted when we become adults. The second section explores different types of belief and introduces the notion of moral beliefs about right and wrong and religious beliefs about the existence and nature of God. The final section of the book explains how beliefs are prioritized into a faith that becomes our framework for making life decisions. The beliefs we hold most dear form the building blocks of our purpose in life. We have the freedom to choose our beliefs so we have the freedom to choose our purpose. The goal of this book is to help the reader think deeply about this process and explore the meaning of this freedom. Dr. Saultz has taken his ability as a big thinker and visionary and focused on the infrastructure of our decision-making process--our individual belief system and the process we each used to develop it during our life. By shining a light on this process we can consciously review why we react and behave the way that we do and he provides us the opportunity to reassess our own belief system. --Scott Fields Emeritus Professor of Family Medicine School of Medicine Oregon Health & Science University As a scientist and a practicing physician Dr. John Saultz sets his voice to something more profound than the practice of knowing. In this precise and highly personal book he defines something more consequential to human purpose. He sets his life and his vocation within the greater context of faith and its consequence toward a moral world. --James Doherty Senior Pastor St. Matthew Lutheran Church Beaverton Oregon Bookended between a brief preface and a closing chapter based on personal experience is an analysis of belief and faith that is like the author: intensely-focused logical helpful. Choosing Faith is about living with integrity--when actions match belief. This book helps us to understand beliefs--what they are how they arise and why they are important to lifes small and foremost decisions. --Kurt Stange family physician John W. Saultz MD is a family physician and medical school professor and lives in Portland Oregon. He grew up in a small town in Ohio and graduated from the Ohio State University with degrees in mathematics and medicine. Dr. Saultz is the author of three previous medical books a collection of essays and over 150 scientific articles in a career spanning over forty years. This is his first book for a general audience.