Why do you believe what you do? And how did you get to that belief?

None of your poll questions make sense.. how do you expect people to partake in this buffoonery?

I can not find any answer on the poll that would apply to why I reverted to Islam.

I never said I don't understand --I said your questions were nonsensical... almost bordering upon insulting...
I gather you take everything that doesn't agree with "your truth" as you conceive it to be as "uncivil". if that is your exist as to the questions that baffle you then by all means you can consider them objectionable or uncivil until the cows get home..
you look at the Questions and tell me what you think is wrong with them-- Do you really think that is how people become believers?

Why do you hold your belief?
I chose a belief the same as my family.
I chose a belief that is dominant in my area..
I was taught my belief by members of authority. "family, teacher, commutinty et.."
I chose a belief different from my family.
I chose a belief different from my area.
I married into my belief.
I had a traumatic event in my life that made me search for a belief.
I had a traumatic event that made me loose my belief.
I came to my belief without any unreasonable outside influence.

format_quote Originally Posted by Grace Seeker

I came to my belief as a result of serious inquiry and deep reflection.
I came to my belief as a result of divine revelation.
I came to my belief as a result of a social manipulation and brainwashing.


Where are these answers?


None of yours fit me. But if it would be allowed, I could write my story for all to read. However, I won't without advance permission, because I would not want it to be mistaken for promoting a belief other than Islam, which it would be reasonable for some to think it was doing.

Thank you-- so it is not just me and my "uncivil ways", that think these questions are almost insulting !

peace Gene

I came to my belief in the truth of Islam for several reasons. Among them being many years of study and then because of what can only be called divine intervention.

I had no intentions of ever accepting Islam and it was not until when I finaly read the Qur'an and meaning came to me and it all made sense and fell into place. I had no doubts that I was Muslim and had been denying it all my life. I finally accepted what I truly was and came home to where I belong.

i couldn't really answer the questions.
but i'd like to ask the OP
why do you not believe what you don't believe? and how did you get to that non-belief?

Some of the choices can't be taken seriously as no one in their right mind would choose them, do you expect people to really say "I was socially manipulated/brainwashed to believe my belief"?
Even if this may be true for some individuals they will choose other choices they think lead them to that belief and not the truth.

I chose the "same belief as family" option, simply because my family is Christian and so am I. Realistically it would be a combination of several.

''I came to my belief without any unreasonable outside influence.''

i hate reading double negatives!!

format_quote Originally Posted by ranma1/2

I am curious about the brainwashing bit. When did this happen?

I don't think I was. Rather I was making a passive/aggresive comment on the list originally presented.
One could argue that the following original options:

I chose a belief the same as my family.
I chose a belief that is dominant in my area..
I was taught my belief by members of authority. "family, teacher, commutinty et.."
I married into my belief.

--are themselves all forms of social manipulation or even brainwashing. We think a particular way because we have been conditioned to by others. Since so many of the original list were of this type, I just labelled it for what it was. I don't know that you intended to do so, but so much of your list was as if people wouldn't come to belief for any rational reason, society (be it the acceptance of it or rebellion against it) and traumatic experiences were about the only options available. It is as if you have predetermined that neither a real experience of God nor any reason could be involved in the process. And when I saw that the only option that did not fit the social or traumatic event paradigm was "I came to my belief without any unreasonable outside influence" it was as if you had said that you expected the normative way of coming to belief was to involve unreasonable or outside influences or both. That's when the passive/aggressive side of me came out.

See, it is possible to choose the same belief as one's family, without that being the reason "why" one has chosen it. Yet, your questions don't leave that interpretation open. It is quite possible that one comes from a family that held belief XYZ, yet raised you to think for yourself. So you examined faith XYZ, but also faiths ABC, CBS, and NBC. And when one had done so, you found that you did in fact believe XYZ also, not because your family did (or didn't), not because of some traumatic event (though you may have experienced some), not for any of the reasons that you gave, but because after deligent faith explorations you found that XYZ seemed to be true and relevant to your life. You never even considered that a possibility in what you allowed for us.

This thread illustrates an important point. Many don't realize or care to admit why they hold the belief that they do. Most people do hold the same belief as their parents and as the region in which they live. This demonstrates that people have a tendency to believe what their parents teach them. Which is no big revelation. Children adopt many of the beliefs and cultural identity of their parents, not just the religious.

True, there may be a few believers in a religion who would have come to that belief even if they hadn't been raised in it, but the statistics clearly show that conversion is much rarer than adopting the religion of the parents - so there would not be many.

Yet pretty much every devout Christian is loathe to admit or recognize that they would likely be a devout muslim had they been born elsewhere, and same for the devout muslim admitting or recognizing that they would be a devout Christian.