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I guess it’s not possible to convince someone you believe in something for a reason and not just an act of the will, if one is convinced that there can be no reason. Really the only way someone is convinced of something anyway is ultimately through their own experience and/or trust.

Let’s take a mundane example: belief in the existence of Antarctica. I’ve never been there, but I believe, I *know* it exists. Why? Because I have experience in those that claim to have been there are trustworthy. Explorers, scientists, I have no reason to doubt their claim, experience has taught me such people have no reason to lie in such a situation, so I trust that Antarctica is there, and through that trust, I *know* it’s there. Thus I can say with confidence, I believe Antarctica exists, when I really mean I *know* it exists, as a fact.

I would say that if a belief is real to one, then there can be no convincing otherwise. So for example, if my life is changed in some way because of something, then that something must be real, by definition. I think as a society we put way too much emphasis on the so-called “power of the mind” to transform us. Sure there’s a mental component to change in one’s life, but not the only one.

So if I am perceptibly changed, another can perceive a change in me, and I say “This change is because of God, because of this experience ‘x’”, who can deny that witness? Other than to call me a liar of course.

So this is about belief in God. Belief in Transubstantiation, Mary, etc, these are things that, if one’s intellect is so willing, can be easily believed, because again, a change in one’s life due to these factors, attributable to these factors, who could “explain” this change other than to suggest it’s “the power of the mind” or call me a liar?

I submit only the cynic would say something like that. Or someone convinced such changes come from the Devil (which makes no sense IMO if such changes are positive ones, changes that lead me to increase in holiness).

In other words, I don’t believe in something if there’s not a reason. I just don’t. And I really don’t think that’s the Christian proposal, that we believe in Jesus (or anything) as a “leap of faith” or “blind faith”. That’s not what the Church proposes anyway.

Hope that helps.