Conversion is the process of transformation. There is a sense where a caterpillar goes into it's pupae one thing and comes out of it another thing, yet in another sense, the butterfly was always in the caterpillar. They are totally different expressions of the same
thing.
Conversion is big business in all religious systems. I don't say that as a cynic. I say that because every world religion is focused upon making converts. That's what they do.
Penn Jillet (an outspoken atheist) asks, "How much would a person have to hate another person if they had the truth and didn't share it with another?"
Sadly, dualistic religious system
establishes benchmarks by which those in power get to validate another person's conversion experience. This is at the heart of why religion leaves such a bad taste in the mouths of modern people. Dr. Seuss's story about "The Star Bellied Sneetches " is retold everywhere. You're not a real Christian if... You're not a real scientist if... You're not a good Muslim if... You're not one of us...
The first thing we must redefine in our thinking is
that every person is only a partial Convert.
All people are converted only to those aspects of the truth that they can understand and are willing to apply. Now, stay with me for a minute. I know how our gut instinct is to point out how "those people" don't have the truth (or a star on their belly).
You see, Truth is really big. It far transcends any humans ability to grasp it all.
Thus all people are at best only partial believers in Truth. Even the mere assumption of truth is enough to change a person. Truth is the most powerful infrastructure of the universe. All things come from it and are going toward it. It is the conduit for the greatest power of the universe, love. For me, Truth and God are synonymous. Every person, everywhere at every time has yearned for the truth. That is why it sounds absurd to say one has found truth but not God. An experience
with one IS an experience with the other.
We each go through life learning something here and there. If we don't get stuck into only one perspective (religion) we will continue to be converted, bit by bit, to wider and wider aspects of the truth. Yet we will never possess all truth.
Can you imagine if the scientific world and all world religions approached their relative searches from this perspective?
Conversion to the truth would then lead all people together. While there may be differences today, there should be a huge confidence that one day there will be a convergence as greater truth was revealed.
The proud mind sees a crowd and thinks, "all those people who lack the truth". A humble mind sees a crowd and thinks "All those people people each have a piece of the truth that I
need."
But we would have to forsake our strong biases that give us institutional, religious, economic and racial power in favor of seeing others as partial possessors of truth that are vital to our own growth.
It might surprise you that this is precisely the original message of Christianity. It's founder didn't start an alternative religion, but an alternative to religion. It was considered "good news"
(gospel) that religious and non-religious alike could know the truth and come out from their small, divisive, hurtful and dehumanizing prisons within their thinking.
When this happens, conversion takes place.
One last point on conversion. It almost always requires some form of suffering or death or sacrifice. It's the Christ pattern of all of life. We never come to wider revelations of the truth without a
sort of dying to the old ideas that kept us stuck. Like Lazarus, we all must come out of our graves by the call of truth to "come forth." Conversion is a process that culminates in higher consciousness, but it is not an event.
This means that suffering is never meaningless. Yes, it sucks. Yes, its prevalent all over the world. It also means that people are given the chance to come out. Look at your own life.
What aspects of truth converted you to your most staunch perspectives? If you don't embrace humility and become a student (disciple) of truth, what will it take to change your mind and get you to consider another perspective?
You are already converted to partial truth. Will you convert to more?
