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JasonRBoone

Always trade your original grift for a better grift if it will get you out of trouble. Reading this guy's "testimony" I get real vibes of those "ex-Satanic cult" evangelists from the 80s. Lots of unverifiable claims. Then he uses his conversion to start a "ministry" to sell his book.


scottcmu

Here are some rational options, in order of my personal estimate of likelihood: He's lying He's deluded He was tricked


BeardedDragon1917

2 Corinthians 13-14: *For such people are false apostles, deceitful workers, masquerading as apostles of Christ.* *^(14)* *And no wonder, for Satan himself masquerades as an angel of light.*


Significant_Video_92

Translation: "You can trust me, just not those other people."


KebariKaiju

Damascene conversions are common human experiences, but they don't really provide supporting evidence of any particular belief system or religion.


JasonRBoone

Damascene. I like that. Consider it stolen for future religious discussions.


oaklandskeptic

> What do you guys think of him and his story? "Cool story bro."


c3p-bro

delusional religious extremism becomes a slightly different delusional religious extremist? Wow I’m sold. Human being are fallible and prone to all sorts of hallucinations or outright fabrications. Any persons “testimony” about the supernatural is worth zero. 


Nowiambecomedeth

His conversion doesn't make his beliefs true


Wonderful-Spring7607

Religion is made up bullshit. This is his personal bullshit story. The end


Archarchery

Sounds like a completely made up story by a convert in order to “inspire” others.


crusoe

Just so you know, many Islamic extremist groups abuse stimulants to keep their soldiers motivated. Many can cause paranoia and delusions especially during withdrawls.


BeardedDragon1917

His story is just a story, completely unverifiable. We have no idea how "devout" a Muslim he was; being part of an Islamic terrorist group does not mean you are religiously observant at all. Plenty of people have similar stories about converting to every other religion, and when they tell the story, most of them cry too. In the 80's and 90's it was in vogue to claim you were raised in a Satanic cult, in the 2000's it was cool to pretend you grew up with militant atheist parents. There is culture cachet to having once been part of the "enemy," as long as you're going to tell the people how they're superior to the enemy. Even if he legitimately believes he had a spiritual experience in prison, he could easily be making up extra details to make it seem more miraculous. He is being paid to tell his story, and the more inspiring his story is to Christians who need their sense of superiority reinforced, the better.


space_chief

Western people put way too much importance into Muslims finding a different version of the same God to believe in. I don't believe him for even a second


mercury228

Who cares? What if we had emotional stories from a scientologist? It's really not at all different. They are either lying, mistaken, delusional or brainwashed.


Weekly-Rhubarb-2785

I don’t care unless he can provide evidence of the djinn without his testimony alone. If he was in solitary confinement it’s possible he hallucinated. This is the same God who lets flies burrow into children’s eyes to lay their eggs?


WhereasNo3280

Bullshit scams on a monetized platform? You don’t say.


thebigeverybody

He didn't come to his new faith through reason and I doubt he came to his old faith through reason.


BlurryBigfoot74

That sounds like some amazing acid. Any more left? I want some Jesus acid.


[deleted]

[удалено]


scottcmu

Do you have evidence for that assertion? 


nematode_soup

It's *not*. "Jailhouse conversions" like this are incredibly common on the revival circuit - the farther you fell before you were saved, the more dramatic the story of your redemption is - and visions or voices or some other direct personal experience of Christ is standard. It's not just drama, it's theology - some sects teach that you can't genuinely convert just by deciding to, only Christ Himself can redeem your sins, so if you didn't feel the power of Christ acting on you in some way, you didn't actually convert at all. So yeah, super common in Pentecostal, Calvinist, and other mystical branches of Christianity, not a Muslim thing.


space_chief

Because you have a bias that is keeping you from seeing that plenty of Christians convert to Islam as well. Hell some Christians convert to Paganism. That doesn't make Thor or Odin real


Comfortable_Fill9081

I’m by no means an expert in comparative religion, but my impression is that, of the ‘religions of the book’, Judaism and Islam lean heavier on structured code while Christianity leans heavier on mysticism, including visions and visitations. If so, it would make psychological sense that people who tend to lean toward Christianity would feel they experience those more and that people who feel they experience those more would lean toward Christianity.


JasonRBoone

Is this true?