Have you been born again?

Post Reply New Topic

I remember in my college years being fascinated by people saying they were born again. So, I asked them to describe their experiences in detail, bear witness so to speak. In hearing these experiences, I became aware that being born again isn't normally quite the earth shattering experience it sounds like, and that it actually mirrors experiences many people go through but apply different terminology to. Certainly, it is about making a choice, and feeling changed by that choice. But that simple statement is pretty much the sum of what is involved. The rest is language. Pretty cool language, but still language. And, yes, I came to realize that I could easily say I was "born again," even though I do not identify with those who choose that terminology. I would rather just say I made an informed adult decision to have faith, and that I can pinpoint when I made that choice. I'm not much of one for colorful supernatural language or experiences; I like things a lot more concrete.

I wish I could say faith was that simple, that all you have to do is say you share faith with people and you would automatically feel welcomed and loved by their faith community. I can't say it was always that easy for me. Doesn't mean people didn't try, that is hard for me to read, just that I didn't always feel it. Perhaps that is one of my more Aspie traits coming out (my family assumes I have some Aspie genes, but probably not enough to be diagnosed, not that I've tried).

Point being, if you aren't the kind of the person that feels such things with groups of people, adding faith and churches isn't really going to change it. Unfortunately.

hahaha that is a practical response, DW. i don't think i'd ever feel that sort of welcoming embrace from any group, but i am happy for those who do.

Well that explains a lot of your positions. I give you credit for saying it. If you believe that, then it follows that you feel you have a mission to save people from faith just as many with faith feel it is their mission to save people from the lack of it.

I'm a lot more neutral, myself. Lead by example, if you will. I'm not out to convert anyone. Except maybe my children, but that is another thread, and I've applied a very light touch there.

Thanks DW. I guess my opinion may be construed as quite forceful or even offensive by believers, but it isn't my intention to be deliberately offensive, merely truthful to my own views and expressing them as I see them without candy coating them. As it turns out, my views are not unusual; I have reached the same conclusions as many in the scientific community who are sufficiently interested and brave enough to delve into these issues. Richard Dawkins is perhaps the best known scientist and exponent of this area of knowledge.

Rather like Hyperlexian said, in a way I envy the fact that you can have faith and gain support from it. For me this is impossible - I feel like I would be deliberately trying to con myself with an ulterior motive. Out of curiosity / interest I once attended a service at a (black) evangelical church with my best friend at college - a Jamaican. The service was way too over the top for me, but I was impressed and touched by all the people who came and shook my hand and welcomed me there - I was the only white guy amongst the 100 or so members of the congregation. I felt their warmth and can easily see why people would want to be part of something like that. Not for me though - my logic overrides my emotions with such things. It is rather like finding out that Santa Claus is a fiction invented for children - once a child has that revelation there is no going back and pretending he is real, no matter how much the child enjoyed the illusion.

Agreed, but you don't say what the difference is. Human nature is centered around ME; however when Jesus came to Earth as a man he started the work of creating a second human nature, one that is centered around Mankind and all the other creatures his father created. Once your spirit comes to life, you are born again, get saved, accept him as Lord, whatever term you want to use; your original nature should start changing into his. If it doesn’t, something is wrong.

Very pithy. That is true of any sin, original or not.

Sin is the divergence between what we do, and what we ought to do.

ruveyn

This "Born Again" concept is just one more way that the Church divides people against each other. Aside from the fact that one of religion's main purposes is to separate "them" from "us", congregations seem to be divided into the Born Agains and everybody else.

Unless you are Born Again, you shall not be seen as a True Christian, and you may as well be one of "them", because you are obviously not one of "us".

That is why I felt the need to really, really understand what a "born again" experience looked and felt like. Once I knew, I realized that I had no trouble saying I was "born again," even if I hadn't been raised with that language. What is interesting are the people who would want to challenge me on my conclusion, without ever asking me to describe my actual experience. What ever happened to only God knowing who is saved?

I can't get to where there are no unanswerable questions left, which is why I concluded that there must be a God. This wasn't an easy thing for me, because I was very science oriented in my youth (as my kids are now. I am realizing through them how much I miss studying science!). But there is always the "it just happened." Things can be broken down so far, and then there is no explanation. As I told my son, that seems like the logical place to insert the hand of God.

Then again, I've also told my kids, who know that Mom and Dad are Santa, that none of it makes Santa any less real. He just doesn't wear a red suit and have reindeer.

Some say that magic is just science we haven't learned yet. I happen to like the idea of a world in which there is some magic. And my kids do, too. Despite their very scientific minds.

Science is about learning how God performs His miracles.

I think it is a shame that so many idiots in your childhood stole that sense of happy magic from you. I guess there really isn't any going back, but how they could not see what they were really doing appalls me.

Only if I've been reincarnated... Only once in this lifetime.

It's just one more way that the fundies have for making themselves feel superior to others.

I'm way too large to fit back into the womb.Seems hot,stuffy and cramped and dark.

Nice backhanded question. Do you really expect anyone to explain to you something you already judge as nonsense?

If your actually interested then look it up yourself. It is something recorded in writings about a religious figure, Jesus of Nazareth, from about 33 AD.

The atoms that my body is composed of have probably been reborn and reused multitudes of times.