I’ve always been skeptical of people who tell you something and then expect you to just believe it without doing your own research. I was the kid who told my parents that Santa didn’t exist (instead of the other way around), and asked questions like, “Would Gandhi go to hell because he didn’t believe that Jesus is the son of God and died for our sins?” Having been raised in the conservative Church of Christ where I was expected to simply believe the teachings, I felt that it was my duty to do my own research and not blindly accept “on faith” what I was being taught. How can you truly believe something if you haven’t researched it and other options?
I’m amazed at people who claim a certain religion and haven’t even critically examined and studied the primary source(s) of information for their beliefs (e.g. the Bible, Koran, Torah, Bagvadhgita, Vedas, etc.). At the end of the day I care more about what you do, not what you say you believe, because I think your truebeliefs will drive your actions.
More to the point, I’m still on my own spiritual journey and have just recently started to spend time seriously investigating other options besides the one that was shoved at me when I was young and impressionable. I was attempting to share some of my findings with someone very close to me, and they basically shut down. I mean, they were physically affected by the information. I was just sharing some information I thought was interesting, not trying to convert them or anything. I was amazed at how people have been brainwashed to the point that they are closed to even learning about anything else. I use the word “brainwashed” because if it was simply a matter of having faith, then this person would not have been affected in such a way by new, conflicting information. I realized that you can’t just spring stuff on people that basically refutes everything they’ve been taught to believe all at once. There’s a process for effectively sharing information regarding sensitive subjects like religion.
So I said all that to make this request: Do you have any inspirational conversion stories either about yourself or someone you know?
I’m specifically interested in hearing examples of people being raised in a certain religion who believed it without question and then converted (either to another religion or to a more spiritually pure path) after reaching adulthood. You can share by commenting on this post or emailing me directly at tre@dnbeapparel.com. To get the conversation started, here’s the most inspirational story I’ve read so far.
