Believing with a measure of doubt; belief with the spirit of hypothesis: "If a member of the so-called intellectual class joins any religious group or openly subscribes to its teaching, he will have to prepare himself for a good deal of criticism from his unconverted and more skeptical friends. Some of these may be sympathetic and genuinely interested; others will be covertly satirical, suspicious, or quite frankly hostile and dismayed.... One question, especially, he must learn to expect. It will be asked by the most candid, by those who really want to know: "Yes, of course, I can quite understand why you did it, in a way . . . but tell me, do you actually believe all that?" This question is particularly distressing to the convert, because, if he is to be honest, he will have to answer: "No. I don't yet." The "all that" to which the questioner refers will vary in detail and mode of formulation, according to the religious group the convert happen