Why do people convert?

[Spirit of Light]

I guess I don't understand converting without learning everything first...

...Maybe another roadblock for me is that I love my parents and relatives, and am genuinely a satisfiable person. I would never have a reason to set myself apart from my loved ones, for something 'new'.

To me the spiritual path for lack of words starts with the beginning, it is not so that i first have to realize everything in the Holy Quran and in the Sunnah or the Hadiths before becoming a muslim the path is the study of how to become better as a human being, and for a muslim that is to study the teachings given to us. Only by study can one know what needs to be done better, or had to be left behind.

Today i am not Lucky enough to have any loved ones from my family left to show that my conversion was right for me. My parents passed away long time ago, and my brother was to sick in his mind for me to keep contact with, he was a danger to me.
My ex girlfriend know of my conversion but does not care about religion.

So i have only my new Girlfriend and her family to give of my self to, and they are already muslims.

 

[Secret Chief]

Not sure. I would guess somewhere in the vicinity of where I lost them.

I never knew what to say when my mum offered this sage advice either!

 

[Vinayaka]

I guess I don't understand converting without learning everything first...

...Maybe another roadblock for me is that I love my parents and relatives, and am genuinely a satisfiable person. I would never have a reason to set myself apart from my loved ones, for something 'new'.

I concur. It seems to me that people convert on whims. Somebody comes along, it all sounds super, you have a rush of euphoria from friendship evangelism, the promise of food, or whatever, you sign a card, and you're in.

For me, true conversion is a much longer process. You should study the faith a lot, practice it, mingle with other adherents, and do some deep reflection. If, after 5 years, you feel the same, sure ... convert. (My 'conversion' took 5 years plus. I put conversion in quotes because I went from no religion to a religion, not from religion to religion.) I understand that to convert to Judaism it takes about that long, and there are lots of requirements.

I don't think waking up one morning saying 'I'm now a ___________." will be taken that seriously by most. The watching friends and elders will see it as some passing fad.

Better to go with "I'm studying _________ . Maybe one day I'll convert."

 

[IAMinyou]

I notice there are many people who switch religions for whatever reason... But what makes anyone think that their new religion will not become old news like the last one?

...What are you looking for?

Religious-minded people have no idea what they're looking for. The wander about aimlessly hoping something will come dropping out of the sky to tell them that God is here.

 

[Rival]

Religious-minded people have no idea what they're looking for. The wander about aimlessly hoping something will come dropping out of the sky to tell them that God is here.

You and I have a very different experience of religious people.

 

[Vinayaka]

I notice there are many people who switch religions for whatever reason... But what makes anyone think that their new religion will not become old news like the last one?

...What are you looking for?

The question assumes that people convert on their own free will. In many cases it's coerced. Food, a job, loneliness, threat of death. Yes, it's sad.

 

[Nimos]

My car keys. Have you seen them?

This might be useful when you finally find them:

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Tile-Mate-...HZ6PMC8HV2H&psc=1&refRID=K1J3TP66XHZ6PMC8HV2H

 

[chinu]

I notice there are many people who switch religions for whatever reason... But what makes anyone think that their new religion will not become old news like the last one?

...What are you looking for?

When any dog is affected by strong itching problem. Dog keep on changing the places sitting here and there. Dog think that there's some kinda itching problem in the every new place that he sits every new time.

 

[Unveiled Artist]

Nothing wrong to say about Falun Gong from my part, but i realized i was not practicing the way that i was supposed to do, so no matter what i tried to do, ended up to nothing at all, i was probably failing from every i did. And i certainly was not gaining the wisdom i thought i was. So in a sense i was fooling my selg and others by claiming to be a practitioner. So not to damage their path i chose to leave it and searched again. And when reading the Qur'an it was like i realized my own fault on a massive scale.

I think with islam you'll get full understanding cause of cultural embeddedness. Falun gong probably was an interest it without context, I can see why it doesn't "work." Also, in islam you have more support and places of worship. Different practices during the day that keeps you aware. Also, foreign practices leads us to think for ourselves how to apply. Takes memory, discipline, and conviction. Everyone's different.

 

[GardenLady]

It's absolutely not about "old news." I left my previous denomination because I saw both problematic issues with doctrine and severely problematic institutional behavior. The denomination I belong to now is very similar in many ways in terms of creed, liturgy, and lectionary, but without many of those problematic doctrines and without the RICO-like behavior of the organization.

 

[Vinayaka]

My car keys. Have you seen them?

I'd help you but I can't find my glasses.

 

[Vinayaka]

I guess I don't understand converting without learning everything first...

...Maybe another roadblock for me is that I love my parents and relatives, and am genuinely a satisfiable person. I would never have a reason to set myself apart from my loved ones, for something 'new'.

If you can't convince your loved ones, you most likely haven't convinced yourself.

 

[Quintessence]

As @Rival mentioned, the core of religion is about making sense of the human experience and managing both the blessings and banes these experiences entail. Having some sort of structure or context within which to grapple with existential questions is vital to human health and well-being. Whether or not it gets the word "religion" placed on it in most respects is inconsequential, but lacking an axis for oneself of some sort (or having the wrong axis for one'e experiences) leaves one wanting.

I'm not sure it's accurate to say I "converted" in the strict sense of the term. The axis labeled "religion" my folks tried to orient me around as a kid wasn't my axis and I knew that very young. I left it very young, and started building my own very young. It wasn't until much later in life that I realized that was religion, and that there was a group of religions for what I was already doing. This experience isn't uncommon for Pagans. The thing about Paganisms is that on the whole, they aren't dogmatic or creedal. Provided your axis aligns, it never gets old as there is always something new within it.

 

[Secret Chief]

I'd help you but I can't find my glasses.

Are they on top of your head? Mine sometimes get put there by person or persons unknown.

 

[ecco]

I notice there are many people who switch religions for whatever reason... But what makes anyone think that their new religion will not become old news like the last one?

Often it is people who are insecure about themselves and their lives. They may not even be thinking about finding a different religion. Then they see a friend who is touting ________ and decide to look into it. More often, they are recruited by groups like Scientology or Hare Krishna or the JWs or Charlie Manson.

 

[Father Heathen]

Once I complete this, everyone will be making one final conversion.

 

[robocop (actually)]

I notice there are many people who switch religions for whatever reason... But what makes anyone think that their new religion will not become old news like the last one?

...What are you looking for?

People convert because they have special experiences with the religion.

 

[Pipiripi]

There was many reasons for my convertion. It stretch from wishing to find something deeper meaning of life to "meeting God" when reading the new scriptures that lead to the conversion
For my self, i realized i was digging my own spiritual grave the way i was living my spiritual life for a long time. Not that i want to blame the past religions or spiritual teachings i was trying to practice, the fault was within me. I was the one who failed to do what i was asked to do.

So then you can ask, will a conversion to a new belief not just do the same to me again?
That is a question i asked my self a lot too, but the more i read the Qur'an the more i realized that it spoke to me.

Spoke to me you ask?
Yes the teaching hit home so to speak, i found more of those answers i had been looking for, that for some reason i did not find before. If that is Allah speaking to me or its just that from reading the Qur'an that my mind saw the answer better, i do not know yet.

But the connection to something higher then my self deffently was lighting up within me.

Still i have a lot to learn and to prosses before I become a good Muslim, but i see that it can be done.

I feel strange that you have read the Bible it doesn't make you feel good. The Bible is not a book of feelings, but for love and obedience to Jehovah God and His Son Jesus Christ of NAZARETH.
When you have time, see Muslim converted to Christian. Khamal.

 

[Saint Frankenstein]

I notice there are many people who switch religions for whatever reason... But what makes anyone think that their new religion will not become old news like the last one?

...What are you looking for?

Truth and what suits me as a person and my needs. I change paths when I hit a wall and things aren't working for me in it anymore. I may have further realizations or new perspectives later on that cause me to change my mind or I may not and just abandon it.

It does seem that organized religion isn't for me as I don't like to be told what to believe and trying to force my views to fit someone else's mold doesn't seem to work for me. I have tried over and over to be a Christian but doesn't work out and I end up lapsed. My thinking and worldview is decidedly non-Christian, anyway. I need to just let it go and walk my own path.

May I change again? Maybe, probably. The only constant is change. Stagnacy is death. However, I'm reasonably positive that whatever new insights or tuggings of the heart happen, it will be within the overall umbrella of where I am now (LHP, occult, paganism, etc. which appears to come naturally to me).

 

[osgart]

I seem to have constructed my own religion because I am unconvinced of the human history of answers to existential questions.

The closest religion to mine might be the concept of Brahman. But I do not convert to it. I even have a different name of the reality; Logia. But no conversion. For I do not know the entailments that go along with Brahman.

Then there is the matter of virtues in a religion. There must be a universal common ground there. I'm not an easy convert. No one should be. Existential questions are hardest of all.