What Is A Zealot?

The dictionary definition of a zealot is “a person who is fanatical and uncompromising in pursuit of their religious, political, or other ideals.”

By the dictionary definition, I suppose you could say I’m a zealot. I have firm beliefs with regards to religion, politics and lots of other things, which I have touched on before.

So as an example, am I a zealot because if someone came up to me and said I think you should convert to “insert any religion here” I would say no? By the dictionary definition, yes.

I think the more accepted use of the term is actually where the person trying to convert you is the zealot.

By that definition, I am definitely not a zealot – I have opinions (on everything) but I don’t want to convert everyone I meet to believe the same as me. Wouldn’t the world be a boring place if everyone mindlessly believed the same thing?

I think it is one thing to have, and share, strong opinions but it is quite another when you try to constantly brow beat people to believe the same as you do.

I can’t even begin to imagine what a miserable life it must be if you spend all of it trying to make people blindly believe that your opinion is the truth of the matter. It must get so boring constantly defending your opinion to the point that no one else is allowed to have a differing opinion. And imagine if you succeeded. What would you do now there’s no one left to convert?

When people try to convert me to their way of thinking, I react in one of two ways. If they are open to reasonable debate, I will happily engage in such and am happy to explain why I believe what I believe. If however, they are never going to accept that I can’t be converted, I tend to switch off – eventually they’ll get the message!

How do you cope with the zealots around you?

You can find me here: Twitter Bloglovin Pinterest and Instagram Please do stop by and say hi!