Conversion Experiences
Oct. 25th, 2008 08:23 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
qosOne of my very spiritually-engaged friends posted last night about her strong feelings about two friends who had become atheists. Her story got me thinking about my own experience of suddenly finding myself an atheist after/during my existential crisis in college. What at that time I called a "loss of faith" I later came to consider an initiatory doorway into a much deeper spiritual life.
Another person's comment got me thinking about the question of what consistutes a "successful" belief and what prompts people to change their beliefs. Under what conditions do we decide -- consciously or unconsciously -- that our beliefs are not resulting in whatever we think they should be delivering as a result of our having them? And how hard is it to change, even when we start to feel some degree of discomfort from holding onto old beliefs? While I'm primarily focusing on spiritual beliefs, this could be a much wider question, taking into account beliefs about political systems, the economy, parenting, etc. . .
Anyone interested in sharing your conversion stories?
Anyone want to throw out some definitions of what makes a belief system successful or not? What makes it "work" for a person or not? Are there any universals that one could expect to see in the life of a person who holds beliefs that "work"? (This is a very subjective question. I'm not looking for a one-size-fits-all authoritative answer.)
I'll post some of my own reflections a bit later. . . Now that the snack mentioned in the previous entry has settled, I need to get to work on applied spirituality rather than theory.
Another person's comment got me thinking about the question of what consistutes a "successful" belief and what prompts people to change their beliefs. Under what conditions do we decide -- consciously or unconsciously -- that our beliefs are not resulting in whatever we think they should be delivering as a result of our having them? And how hard is it to change, even when we start to feel some degree of discomfort from holding onto old beliefs? While I'm primarily focusing on spiritual beliefs, this could be a much wider question, taking into account beliefs about political systems, the economy, parenting, etc. . .
Anyone interested in sharing your conversion stories?
Anyone want to throw out some definitions of what makes a belief system successful or not? What makes it "work" for a person or not? Are there any universals that one could expect to see in the life of a person who holds beliefs that "work"? (This is a very subjective question. I'm not looking for a one-size-fits-all authoritative answer.)
I'll post some of my own reflections a bit later. . . Now that the snack mentioned in the previous entry has settled, I need to get to work on applied spirituality rather than theory.
