What if you’re wrong?
What if you discovered that your religion, your beliefs, your way of seeing life and reality was wrong?
Would you leave your religion? Would you join a religion that you’ve considered your enemy your whole life?
I think most of us wouldn’t. I don’t know if I could. But I have considered it.
In college I spent a summer in the Middle East talking to Muslims about their beliefs and my own belief in Jesus. As I talked to them it became clear to me what I was asking of them: to leave their faith, their culture, their family, their whole outlook on life. If they were to convert to Christianity such a move would change everything for them. The immediate consequences would be very harsh and hard. I won’t recall here the thousands of Muslim converts to Christianity that are killed every year for their new found faith. In the country where I was this probably wouldn’t happen, but things would change that’s for sure.
“What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.”
So would I convert? Would I leave Christianity and convert to Islam? At this point I don’t see any compelling evidence that would make me believe such a conversion is likely. But I find it hard to ask something of someone else that I am not myself willing to consider.
This was driven home to me this past fall as I spent 3 hours talking to a Muslim friend while eating chicken wings and discussing our religions. He said at one point that even if he were wrong he would never leave Islam. It was his faith and identity and that he would never leave it.
So the question that every honest person needs to ask themself is this; do you want to be right or do you want to know the truth? If the point is to be right, then it necessitates an “us versus them” mentality. Lines are drawn, ammunition is stored, troops are mobilized and diplomats withdrawn. If the point is to know the truth then the opposite occurs.
I don’t think it is much of a surprise but most people want to be right.
It makes me admire those who are humble and thoughtful enough to question how they were brought up, and follow the truth wherever it leads them.
It seems to me that a truth seeker would be willing to follow the Truth wherever it leads even if that means abandoning his father, mother and family. That search would be uncomfortable and could prove deadly. But I believe that there is a God that rewards those who diligently seek Him and that He will be found by them when they search with all their hearts.
This God could be Allah. He could be Vishnu. He could be a she (Gaia). Or He could be Jesus. The point is are you willing to follow the truth wherever it leads even if it leads you where you don’t really want to follow?
Me? I was hoping you wouldn’t ask.
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