The Christian faith places great emphasis on those that share this faith being “born again.” Their belief is that when a human professes to accept Jesus as his or her savior, they are re-created into a being that will enjoy Heaven for an eternity and a life everlasting. The Bible records that Jesus told his followers to “believe in me, and ye shall have life everlasting.” The benefits of this belief in Jesus are immense. Who would not want to live forever in peace and happiness? All it takes, to have this eternity of pleasure, is to make this simple statement of faith. What a great comfort to know that death is not the end of existence, and that all struggles will be overcome at the end of earthly life. Who would not want to believe in this historical figure who told us we must love the Lord our God with all our heart, soul and strength, and told us to love our neighbors as ourselves? You can’t get any more moral than that.
Unfortunately, it is not so simple. There is a lot of baggage that goes along with “believing” in Jesus. This phrase carries a lot more content to it than just a simple bit of faith. It means for one, as currently defined by the Christian church, believing that Jesus was the Christ, a divinity on Earth. It means believing that Jesus was part of a mysterious three-in-one oil, all parts of which are interchangeable, those other parts being some sort of powerful Holy Spirit, whatever that may be, and the great God of the entire universe, whatever and whomsoever that may be. It means believing that Jesus was able to bend the physical laws of the universe to his liking, and was exempt from those laws. It means believing that Jesus was able to walk on water, bring dead people back to life, create water and food whenever he chose to do so, control the weather, and make fish appear wherever he told them to appear. He could drive demons out of human souls and cause animals to run over a cliff to their death. He was just as powerful as the great God in the sky, but in an earthly way. The enormity of these fanciful myths weighs heavily, when we have not in our own experience found any evidence that any one person of any description, is exempt from the physical laws of the universe. Our credulity is stretched beyond the breaking point. Yet acceptance of these wildly fanciful fables is what is required for any one of us to profess that we “believe in Jesus.”
It gets even worse that this. The Christian faith carries this requirement for being “born again” in order to go to Heaven, to the point of absurdity. They say that if there has been a man who has been cruel and destructive all of his life, who has lied, stolen, destroyed property, killed, raped, desecrated, fomented violence, disrespected all laws, and acted only for his own selfish gain, without showing love for anyone, and on his death bed professes belief in Jesus as his savior, that person will go to Heaven after death to enjoy pleasure for an eternity. They also say that if there has been a woman who has demonstrated love and compassion all of her life, has cared for the poor, has taught the illiterate, has provided works of literature of great value, has encouraged many other to lead lives of love and mercy, and has not professed belief in Jesus as her savior, that woman will burn in Hell forever. Mother Theresa, in other words, would have never been Sainted if she had publicly expressed her personal doubts about the Christian myth. If there is any human who believes that accepting Jesus is the sole requisite for eternal pleasure, regardless of what else they have done in their lives, we will have to believe that such person is greatly insane.
In spite of the absurdity of this belief, it is currently receiving great emphasis by the conservative elements of Christianity. The biblical literalists and fundamentalists have experienced a regrowth of fervor and enthusiasm. Christian television ministries have been greatly popular, and there has been a burgeoning of megachurches, where, after a gaudy spectacle of blaring brass, resounding organs, full voiced excited choirs, and flashing visions on large television screens, flamboyant preachers extoll the heavenly virtues of being “born again.” They subvert the wisdom and tolerance with which this country was founded by saying that “This is a Christian nation, founded on Christian values.” “We cannot rest until all our judicial courts are committed to Christian principles.” “ There is only one king of this country, and his name is Jesus.” “When we go to Heaven, we will meet our God, face to face.” Then all the attendees of these mass psychosis sessions go home, wide-eyed, and committed to forcing their particular myths and their particular faith on all the other inhabitants of this country. The Christian Taliban is hard at work in the United States of America, fomenting hate and/or intolerance of all other people of all other faiths or non-faiths.
The Christian religion wishes us to believe that none of us can lead the life of an adult human, with moral and ethical behavior, unless we have taken this additional step in our lives, to be “born again.” Only then, according to them, will we have reached our full potential as human beings. Only then will we feel at peace with ourselves and others. Only those who profess that Jesus was the Christ, who was the Savior of Mankind, will be able to make moral and correct decisions, with God on their side, and live in peace for an eternity. Unfortunately, for the reasons cited above, what happens when humans state devotion to this myth, is to enter a prison, with dark cell walls, carrying heavy chains with them which rattle with every step, and have only a small window looking out on a trash heap, as their only view of the outside world. They have committed themselves to blind intolerance, and often hatred, of all other people and all other faiths. They have voluntarily committed themselves to depressive slavery in a primitive cause.
There is one way to be born again in this life, to feel free, to feel as peace with ourselves, to understand our position in the universe, to feel loving and compassionate toward all other humans, protective of all other life, and wise stewards of our precious resources on this only home that we have, planet Earth. That glorious equanimity comes in life when we break free from these religious myths and chains. Only then do we reach our full potential. Only then do we become all that we should be.