Um, yes. But my point really had nothing to do with the nature of the inner jihad. My point was that the Koran itself doesn't include any reference to it, and thus only certain Muslims accept it at all. Even among those that accept that it exists there are varying degrees of import placed in it.

I think that, in some ways, you could draw a parallel between jihad and the trinity in Christianity. For Christians that believe in the trinity, it is an obvious concept and they see evidence of it in the bible. Those that don't believe in the trinity don't see why it exists and don't see any evidence in the bible. The parallel also holds true in that those that believe in the trinity are reaching further in finding evidence in the bible then those that don't follow it.

I'm not sure what your point about conversion pertains to, but I would reply that it depends on the person.

Jay

If you limit the domain to religion, I would agree that the majority of conversions involve an epiphany. Heck, from what I've read, every conversion to fundamentalist Christian has involved a strongly emotional and relatively fast conversion.

However, this isn't true of conversions to atheism. Some of the experiences of conversion to atheism that I have read have taken a long and meandering path that didn't involve anything that might be called an epiphany.

And when it comes to science, I can personally attest to being forced to accept position I didn't like by weight of evidence. Such situation don't involve the joy of discovery and understanding that comes with most science.

Jay