"Conclude" makes the process sound awfully
intellectual. Beliefs are
not the only part of religion. Some religions do very well without
God. Religion is after all about binding people together. In
mainstream fundamentalist communities the church picnic can be just as
important as the preaching. Cults can use what are effectively torture
techniques to bring the group into compliance, notably isolation.
Ah, now we're into a slightly semantic point. Is a Christian a person
that is part of Christian culture, or is a Christian a person that
believes Jesus Christ was the son of God? If the former, then yes,
it's a choice, if the latter, then it isn't. Either you believe it, or
you don't, it's not a choice, it's a conclusion. I don't choose that
2+2=4, I conclude it from my understanding of arithmetic. Someone
could come along and explain arithmetic in a different way to me, or I
could sit down and think about it for a while, and come to the
conclusion that 2+2 actually equals 5, but that isn't a choice.
Claudio said he "came to accept" that he was homosexual. I think
religion is much the same - either you accept a certain belief system,
or you don't, it's not a choice. Homosexuality could be considered a
belief - the belief that members of your sex are more sexually
attractive than members of the opposite sex (NB: I'm not saying
homosexuality is a religion - not all beliefs are part of a religion).
That belief could change (by meeting an individual of the opposite sex
that you find particularly attractive, perhaps), but you can't change
it by concious choice.