Divine Intervention?

The other day I was talking with my very intelligent friend, Brian Fitzpatrick. He also happens to be taking World Religions, and you can find his blog here. Anyway, we were talking about issues between my family and he said something along the lines of "your family should find religion and like each other." That got me thinking. Does 'finding' religion completely change everything about you? Does it change your friends, enemies, and everything in between? I know it supposedly changes the way you look at things in life. All these things that are supposed to change made me ask another question: How much religion do you have to accept into your life before things become different?

There's the common "I think I'll start going to church now," and then there are more dramatic scenarios where people have near-death experiences that change how they feel forever. But where in there do things start to really change? I would think that if someone were to start attending church, they may become slightly more understanding (or irritable, depending on if they like it or not), but when do you start to like people that you couldn't stand at one point? I'm not saying that it doesn't happen - good for the people that do it - I just don't know where people get the empowerment from. Hopefully I'll figure it out one day.