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What religions teach that you must convert people do your religion besides Christianity? If any. And why do Christians feel they must convert people to their God? Why can't they just believe in whatever they believe in and let others believe in what they believe in?

I've been talked to by Mormons and Moonies. Mormons I'm not scared of, but the Moonies are members of a cult, so they scared me. Especially when they invited me to see a movie and said I couldn't tell my mother where I was going. This was a long time ago. The Reverend Moon owns the Washington Times, so they're in Washington DC now.

Not all of us want converts. Even in faiths that are 'supposed' to convert, there's always some laid back members who're busy minding what they're doing rather than what everyone else is. smile

It's just that the converters are a deafening bunch who don't want to let the idea go, regardless of what faith they're part of. Some are doing it to be nice to you, others are doing it for brownie points on whatever afterlife scorecard they play by. Most mean well by it; they think they're doing you a favor.

It seemed to have worked for the Spanish Inquisition. How many people did they kill?

I think that the idea of conversion, as stated earlier in this thread, is that preachers truly believe that the unconverted are going to hell, and that the preacher wants to save them from eternal damnation. At least, that's what I really hope the motive is. Because the alternative theory is that preachers (of any religion) are too xenophobic of anything unfamiliar of them that they need to change their surroundings in order to cope.

Though, it's important to note that religious conversion, ironically enough, isn't just reserved for the religious. Many atheists are routinely accused of militarism. Richard Dawkins, for instance, is accused left and right of being a radical among atheists, in his sharp and often-pointed criticism of religion as a whole. The only difference is that Prof. Dawkins has evidence on his side, whereas any form of religion - as an activity based on faith - relies on belief through lack of (and often in spite of) evidence.

You can't really say all religions are out to convert. For example, the Kemetic Orthodoxy gives classes that describe thier religion, and only those who actually come to the site and say 'Yes, I would like to learn about it' are given about 8 online classes that describe the religion. Then they are asked if they would like to become Remetj (a person who believes in both the Egyptian pantheon and thier current faith). No one forces them to, no one tries to coax or preach to them, and the classes themselves are non-preaching, merely listing all of the facts concerning the history of the faith, the ritual of senut (the equivalent of going to church), and our moral compass, or the path of Ma'at. Also, anyone who is not 18 years old must have a parent send the Nisut a letter giving that child permission to take the classes. Form there, if a person decides they want to be a remetj, they are then asked if they want an RPD (Ritual of Parent Divination) This is one of the very few services where the Nisut asks for a donation to cover the cost of the materials needed. After the divination, the person is asked if they would like to become a Shemsu (a person who puts the Egyptian pantheon before all others) Once agian, there is no preaching, coaxing or anything used to try and 'recruit' a person. It is a choice given to the person involved, and one they make based on what they believe. There is never, at any time, any pressure or charismatic 'preaching' given to try and convert others, and no one holds anything agianst anyone who doesn't want to 'join the club', nor does anyone in the religion think this faith to be higher than any other. If anything, it's probably one of the most religiously tolerant faiths that I certainly know of. You aren't going to find anyone in the KO go and profess they're right and everyone else is wrong. You simply will not. There's no evangelists, no door to door sales. In fact, many of the faith were brought there not by other people, but by the Deities Themselves or were actually looking to study into Egyptian religion and came across the site.

Aren't people born into Judaism?

Some religions get people to believe that if their friends are "unsaved", they will burn in Hell.

Other people think if they convert their friends, they have a better chance themselves of going to heaven.

LOL, funny story about that. Not to generalize, or anything, but I once went to a Born-Again camp by mistake (mom didn't notice what it was). I don't want to say I was brainwashed, but for a month afterwards, I had thrown away all my CDs that were not Christian, read the ENTIRE bible twice (at the age of 9 or so), and tried to convert nearly all my friends (resulting in quite a few arguments and such).

Most religions use Hell, or similar things, as scare topics, so not only will people join the religion, but others will attempt to save friends and family.

As I said in the beginning, I'm not generalizing, I understand only some people do this on purpose. I'm also not saying these religions are bad or untrue in any way...

Ok converting is a statement that says "i belong to this religion or group" And it's not fair to say that ALL Christians shove religion down people's throats... i don't and i love listening to different ideas... sorry i had to say something... Converting to different religions such as Judism you can marry into it, be born into it, or decide(convert) to become part of the faith... and every religion or group has a "ritual" (if you want to call it that) to become part of that religion.