Conversion experience

For the sake of interfaith tolerance, Steve's and Woodrow's responses are helpful.
But I would like to probe further.

Undeniably the Qu'ran warns us against believing that Jesus was anything more than a prophet and man!
Clearly the Bible warns us against false prophets who will come!

So ...

• If believing Jesus to be God was as grave a mistake and sin, as the Qu'ran tells us, why would God give me a 'feel-good' emotion when I follow that belief?
• If Muhammed's teachings were false, as the New testament warns us, why would God give Ashley a 'feel-good' emotion whe she follows that belief?

I'm not sure that I can reconcile the two.

Any comments and thoughts?

Peace.

format_quote Originally Posted by glo

For the sake of interfaith tolerance, Steve's and Woodrow's responses are helpful.
But I would like to probe further.

Undeniably the Qu'ran warns us against believing that Jesus was anything more than a prophet and man!
Clearly the Bible warns us against false prophets who will come!

So ...

• If believing Jesus to be God was as grave a mistake and sin, as the Qu'ran tells us, why would God give me a 'feel-good' emotion when I follow that belief?
• If Muhammed's teachings were false, as the New testament warns us, why would God give Ashley a 'feel-good' emotion whe she follows that belief?

I'm not sure that I can reconcile the two.

Any comments and thoughts?

Peace.

With religion a person who is truly seeking the truth will gain with each step and will experience joy with just the thought that they desire to know God(swt). Then with each step the person will gain more joy as they get closer. If you are planning a trip to see a long lost loved one. Dosen't each inch you walk bring joy? Even if you may have taken a detour on the trip.

format_quote Originally Posted by Woodrow

With religion a person who is truly seeking the truth will gain with each step and will experience joy with just the thought that they desire to know God(swt). Then with each step the person will gain more joy as they get closer. If you are planning a trip to see a long lost loved one. Dosen't each inch you walk bring joy? Even if you may have taken a detour on the trip.

Hhhhmm ... that looks like a sound reply.
I will think it over for a while, Woodrow.

peace.

format_quote Originally Posted by therebbe

Yes, but it is discouraged and takes a long amount of time. The Torah gives seven commandments to gentiles and asks them to live righteous lives and they will go to heaven. So in essence there is not much of a point to convert unless you wish to marry a Jew or become part of the covenent the Jews made with G-d.

Jews love when people convert to a monotheistic faith because if the faith has in there 'holy book' the commandments that G-d gave for gentiles to follow then they are following the Torah basically without even realizing it.

As someone who own a master degree in Comparative Religions, other than Islam and Christianity.... did u ever examined other religious groups who have the 7 Laws elements too.... are there any religious group that you think fits in the 7 laws .... maybe religions like Baha'i Faith, Sikhism, Scientology, Cao Daism, MAndeanism, Zoroastrianism?

format_quote Originally Posted by glo

[*]God reveals himself to people of different faiths in the same way

well, i have never had a conversion experience but i feel strongly that it is this - (above)

If believing Jesus to be God was as grave a mistake and sin, as the Qu'ran tells us, why would God give me a 'feel-good' emotion when I follow that belief?
If Muhammed's teachings were false, as the New testament warns us, why would God give Ashley a 'feel-good' emotion whe she follows that belief?

well, i know christians and muslims will disagree with me but i believe both you and ashley had the "feel good" emotion because you both had genuine conversion experiences. i believe that god knows what is in a person's heart, regardless of the door an individual chooses to come close to god.
but what do i know? that's why i'm an agnostic. (we can get away with stuff like this).

format_quote Originally Posted by KAding

Either that, or God must not be a God that cares about which of the religions is 'correct', but rather touches those people who lead rightous and spiritual life's, regardless of the specific rules all these different religions prescribe. A bit like a Sikh, or yes even a Jew, would describe it. These different religions are merely different paths to the same God and to salvation.

True, it's about having faith in that one supreme, and fighthing over which religion is best to God is pathetic, i'm sure he/she is up there laughing at how ludicrious we all are!

Alaikumassalam,

it is necessary, when seeking to reconcile Christian experience with Muslim experience, to utilise the teaching of Revelations

Through Revelations alone can also Judaism be reconciled with Islam in Isa; despite Jews who preach that such is not possible.

However, what I first undertook to post about here today (it is during Ramadan) is the fact of need to know what are the signs of a true Religious experience.

Modern society has no social category in which a person can report to a counsellor, for example, "oh this happened and then I felt like such and such; but my true fear was . . . " etc, when such experiences are within the definitions of truly Religious.

Usually what is happening is that there are a group of persons already converted whom assume that every other converts experience will be the same as their own. Or else a group of persons born into families with strong Religious practise, and another group of persons born into families without strong Religious practise. Usually that fact alone is held to be the determining fact of whether anybody is a true believer. Yet there are some of us born into families without strong, overtly structured, Religious practise; yet whom believe. We might join up with a Church for a while, but then drift out of communion with that bunch of folk again. Yet never doubting our own Faith.

In Islam the attending of Mosque is far more certainly held as a life long event; even when we might move away and no longer, or less often, attend.

Unfortunately for some folk whom experience a Religious awakening; if they have no Muslim context within which to obtain a solid scientific frame of reference for such; they are being instructed that their experience is insanity. This is an indictment of the failing of Christian Churches in many places, but not all of.

There is an American (born in Cekoslavakia) psychiatrist whom was experimented upon as a student pshychiatrist during the 1950's with hallucinagenic drugs. The earlies uses of LSD were upon psychiatric students; to evaluate whether the drug had any medicial uses. (that similar substances are found in some mushrooms and that some ancient cultures have contained Religious use of; may not have been overlooked) The psychiatrist is named Stanislav Grof; and while I am not in favour of most of the work he engages in (it is called holotropic breath work): to his merit he has made some inventories of the lists of psychiatric symptoms and divided them into different sets. One set is of symptoms which are in different cultures and historical periods, recognised as signs of a Religious experience. Another set is that set which indicates that there is potential danger to the patient if they are lead to believe that they are experiencing anything real. Then the third set is all the other symptoms, neither dangerous in a relative sense, nor real, and this is the mainstay of symptoms of minor psychiatric disturbances. What is significant in these lists is that there are today in the Australian mental health system persons whom have only ever displayed symptoms which can be accorded the first category. Yet without the framework of Religious instruction, neither they nor the psychiatric health professionals can comprehend the situation. What is worst is that most often, among all persons whom experience such without an Islamic context, it is those whom seek to evaluate the experience scientifically whom are being branded as insane. Yet also it is those whom seek only an immediate validation of the experience whom are being lead astray into false belief systems. It seems in fact that Stanislav Grof's work was so lead astray.

Regardless of all that: the fact of the matter is that our cultures need to relearn to properly evaluate our Human experience for its true worth. The experience of remembering that you truly always are believing in essence, has many different forms, all of which deserve honour.

wasalam