Converting Does not Require Believing (at first)

The apostles of Jesus had personal religious experiences (speaking in tongues, for example) before Christianity was an organized religion. My Lyft driver in Washington, D.C. this past week told me of his personal conversionary experience. Born to a Christian mother and Muslim father, as a teenager he experimented with drugs and psychedelic mushrooms. At one point, he realized that his interior life was empty. He started praying and going to services at a mosque (before he joined), and realized that the communal nontangible goods of religion filled him with spirituality.

Podcast host, Honor Levy, a recent convert to Catholicism was quoted in the New York Times, “You just do the rituals, and then it becomes real, even if you don’t [initially] believe in it.” Levy’s interpretation of religious goods is similar to that of my Lyft driver. If you choose to join a religion, you want to participate in the rituals. You become an active member of the community and the praying together, singing together, taking communion together, reciting biblical passages and the Lord’s Prayer together are all real. Why?

Because you are benefiting from the greater nontangible religious good that comes from you and members engaging in the activity together. Levy experiences feelings of euphoria, love, joyousness, and a psychological release that comes with a sense of belonging. These feelings come from participating with other members in communal activities. It is both her experience and she can perceive the others participating in the singing, praying, reciting are experiencing the same psychological, emotional states.

Using a version of the club model developed by economist James Buchanan, Lawrence Iannaccone showed that people covert to strict religions, sects, and cults because the religious goods are of higher quality. A strict religion keeps out less enthusiastic people (free riders) as is able to maintain a high quality of religious goods. Everyone sings, prays, tithes not just a few. People convert to religions without necessarily believing because they want the communal experience.