If you are new to religion or have changed belief.

What would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

Because as one who converted to Baha'i not that long ago, I am very aware that both my understanding and wisdom of the teaching are not fully on any higher level, there is a lot to learn and a lot to understand

Just by switching faith, does not mean you even know all the teaching right away.
It can take years of practice.

Seeker of White Light said:

What would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

Because as one who converted to Baha'i not that long ago, I am very aware that both my understanding and wisdom of the teaching are not fully on any higher level, there is a lot to learn and a lot to understand

Just by switching faith, does not mean you even know all the teaching right away.
It can take years of practice.

Click to expand...

if you're faith is coming to the divine, the holy as a direct experience with the divine requires you to let go of the dogma. if you can't, then dogma becomes a barrier, a wall to discovering the true light because its always in something else. in the case of faith in the religion, it becomes the religion itself. if your faith is in the religion you've converted to, just keep identifying with the label. its a mask that anyone can wear.

you can't serve a religion and love. unconditional love isn't a religion.


religion is a covering to the naked truth

No offense, but to me it sounds very weird, this idea of studying a religion to become an adherent. To me, the whole point of religion is to help you live by the idea of God or divinity that you've already chosen for yourself. It is your servant, not your master.

I would begin by asking MYSELF what God is, not by asking some religion. And I would not allow anyone else to answer that question for me. Then I would ask myself how best to align myself with whatever I thought God is or ought to be. And only then would I look to any religions to help me do that.

Seeker of White Light said:

What would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

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I would say a person doesn't understand their faith well UNTIL they recognize they have the power and strength to reject it.

Seeker of White Light said:

What would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

Because as one who converted to Baha'i not that long ago, I am very aware that both my understanding and wisdom of the teaching are not fully on any higher level, there is a lot to learn and a lot to understand

Just by switching faith, does not mean you even know all the teaching right away.
It can take years of practice.

Click to expand...

Throughout the thirty years I spent as a Christian, I read the Bible from cover to cover several times, but I cannot honestly say that I did so objectively because I read it with the sincere conviction that God was loving, just, and merciful. I believed that he was justified in destroying the world in a worldwide flood and killing people without consequence, as it was written in the Bible, because people had evil in their hearts and were rebellious against God and were to blame, not God. Since I had been indoctrinated (brainwashed) and taught to believe these things about God and fallen mankind, I don't think I was able to read the Bible objectively as a Christian.

I gradually began to perceive God, what I had been taught in church, and what I believed about the Bible in a completely different light after I had forsaken my faith and belief in God and left Christianity. To be quite honest, it was a very eye-opening experience for me, but it was also very painful and difficult for me to go through. With that being said, I don't regret my decision to forsake my faith and belief in God. My only regret is that I didn't do it years ago because I could have spared myself years of anguish and sadness.

Seeker of White Light said:

What would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

Because as one who converted to Baha'i not that long ago, I am very aware that both my understanding and wisdom of the teaching are not fully on any higher level, there is a lot to learn and a lot to understand

Just by switching faith, does not mean you even know all the teaching right away.
It can take years of practice.

Click to expand...

At least, bare minimum, of one entire lifetime practicing. That is the only way to view how it is applied during an entire life. Nearly all faiths have some rituals or beliefs related to birth, or soon thereafter, and certainly all have something about/for death. A couple of lifetimes, perhaps one in a male body, and another in a female body, would be even better. There is so much to learn!

Seeker of White Light said:

hat would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

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3 years with a Master

I converted from Evangelical Christianity to Islam 2-1/2 years ago...but before I took that step, I spent years studying not just the faith I left and the faith that I embraced, but other faiths as well. I'd say I studied Islam in earnest for at least 10 years before taking the step to convert.

Now that I'm a Muslim, I continue to learn--though before it was mostly academic, it's now "how must I live my life in response to this?" I don't think anyone ever fully learns the depths of any religious tradition in a lifetime...nor do I think I'm so wise as to ignore all the learning and wisdom of the ages that came before me--I'm not that special. Sure, they might be wrong on many things, but getting a lot of different points of view and not just relying on your own is one of the major keys to wisdom.

I can't imagine changing religions--or staying in a religion, for that matter--unless one engages one's whole self into it--body, mind and spirit. I don't think a warm feeling in my heart or just the worldview I have that was formed by the culture or family in which I was raised is an adequate way to weigh religious truth. The mind needs to be engaged, and taking a momentous step to convert to another religion shouldn't be done based on an emotional response.

The "normal time" to know my religion well? I guess to learn the basics of the five pillars, you can learn that in a month or less. To understand the depth of it? More than a lifetime. Between those two extremes, I'd say it depends on how deeply they study and pray and follow the other pillars of Islam. I wouldn't trust a teacher who has studied less than 10 years or so, though.

Hmmm. I fully believed and understood Earthseed before I knew about the religion. Maybe that's the best way to find your religion. Instead of focusing on scripture, ask yourself what God and the divine mean to you, then find your religion, rather than your religion finding you. There's organizations for all types, even those who adhere to beliefs outside mainstream religion. It's like scrolling through Netflix. You could spend hours and hours scrolling through their selections, or you can do a search and find exactly what you want. That's what I did with Earthseed. It was simple. I Google'd transhumanist religions, found Terasem, then found that Terasem's basis is in Earthseed.

You need to find the religion you believe in, not the other way around. Similar to what @PureX was saying. There's so many ways to do that too. This website alone can be a crucial source to find what you already know to be true.

Seeker of White Light said:

What would you say is normal to spend in time studying to you can say "i now understand my faith well"

Because as one who converted to Baha'i not that long ago, I am very aware that both my understanding and wisdom of the teaching are not fully on any higher level, there is a lot to learn and a lot to understand

Just by switching faith, does not mean you even know all the teaching right away.
It can take years of practice.

Click to expand...

Personally I think it is just the start of the journey. I see that the tests of faith become a path towards greater understanding. These tests are born out of our capacity to put into practice what is being advised within the Word of God.

In my journey of understanding what Baha'u'llah has offered, I read a lot of the Writings fo 20 years, yet I still had not really found Faith. It took a period of 9 years of great testing, where my faith was challenged by my own choices before I started to find the deeper meanings of what I had been reading.

I can offer, the meaning of God's Word is inexhaustible and the practice of the Word is the path to greater understanding.

It is a great topic, as for every person on this planet, there is a different path to knowledge.

Regards Tony

A lifetime mastering the art of amateurs.