No evidence, just some anecdata as I know a couple of people for whom it happened in this order.
There is no sharp boundary, of course, and there’s a bit of a feedback loop there, too. It’s kinda like asking whether someone feared hell and because of that became a Christian, or whether she became a Christian and that made her fear hell...
On that particular example, it seems to me that anyone who fears hell is (at least) most of the way to Christianity already. Assuming it’s the Christian hell they fear, of course, but then it’s hard to see how fear of some other religion’s hell would incline someone to become a Christian.
If you asked the people in question how their opinions evolved, do you think they would give an account that matches yours?
No evidence, just some anecdata as I know a couple of people for whom it happened in this order.
There is no sharp boundary, of course, and there’s a bit of a feedback loop there, too. It’s kinda like asking whether someone feared hell and because of that became a Christian, or whether she became a Christian and that made her fear hell...
On that particular example, it seems to me that anyone who fears hell is (at least) most of the way to Christianity already. Assuming it’s the Christian hell they fear, of course, but then it’s hard to see how fear of some other religion’s hell would incline someone to become a Christian.
If you asked the people in question how their opinions evolved, do you think they would give an account that matches yours?
A lot of religions have much unpleasantness in the afterlife as a possibility :-/
Which is why I added “Assuming it’s the Christian hell they fear”, etc.