I’ve heard that according to brain science research, many times people make a decision impulsively or intuitively, and then think of reasons to explain why they did that, even though those weren’t really the reasons. So AZOLIS may be right in a sense — people make a gut decision and then justify it. I think many people would never consider believing that the Torah (particularly the Oral Torah) is true and binding because they just can’t imagine that’s what G-d wants, because they have negative stereotypes about what Orthodox Jews are like, or because they think it would be impossible or extremely unpleasant to “have to follow all those rules.” But under the right conditions they can change their minds about what they’ll allow themselves to believe. Sometimes “proofs” may help nudge them in that direction, sometimes not.
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