If one day you discovered that your faith which you had held for some twenty years was misplaced, would you disown it? If you found another faith which you realised was the right one, would you embrace it?

I realise that most people wouldn’t.

Because for many, faith is as much an issue of social status, reputation, familiarity, and security as it is an issue of truth conviction, if not more so! For most people, the fear of discovering truth beyond their ground of familiarity stems from the fear that if they discovered something beyond that which constituted “truth” to them, their allegiance would have to be shifted. Mentally, emotionally, and dispositionally, they avoid such possibility at all cost.

For others, even if the discovery of “new truth” should take place, it does not necessarily lead to a conversion of heart and a redirection of action. Their discovery of new “new truth” rests at the level of casual acquaintanceship. For such, the usual cycle of relative justification emerges: “Just because you act upon a conviction, it does not necessarily mean that I must act upon mine”. Basically, the development of a new belief for them does not necessarily lead to a conviction to act. Clearly, overriding that faith conviction is an even greater conviction that the present stability and sense of security are to be guarded above all else.

So if you discovered that your faith has been misplaced all this while, would you abandon it at the risk of losing your friends, your family, your job, and all sorts of securities that allow you to sleep restfully in the night (knowing that the next day those securities will still be there)? And if you discovered another faith that was true to you, would you embrace it at the risk of provoking social disfavour and suffering financial, relational, and positional insecurity?

I admire those who would and who have. I have deep respect for those who have left their Christian faith to become Muslim, those who have left their Muslim faith to become Catholic, those who have left their Christian faith to become Buddhist, and those who from being religious people have decided to abandon the idea of faith all together, and others alike. They are people who understand the worth of a conviction.

But the vast majority of “believers” are simply casually religious people, flirting with truth.