Born again

it's pure fantasy.

Here is an opinion...

In Sanskrit, an enlightened is called DviJa (Dvi - twice + Ja - born/germinated). This refers to dying to the old narrow identity of a body born out of mother's womb and acquiring the new one that of Brahman (the all encompassing spirit) It is a metaphor for transformation... perhaps twice born is a similar notion.

Re: Born again
Well, since this Jesus fellow tells Nico that it is necessary to be reborn of water and Spirit I would venture to say it means accepting and truly believing (not just lip service belief) that there is but one God Almighty. Along with that belief is the need for a baptism...hence the water.

So, you want to get into the Kingdom of Heaven, eh? Okay. Repent of your sins, ask God the Omnipotent for forgiveness of said sins, ask to be placed along the road of goodness and love and then while you're at it have yourself thrown into the river for a baptism. A light blessing with a few droplets of tap water might do it as well; but, the total submersion baptism is also a test of faith. You need to have faith and belief that God will not allow you to drown in the murky waters of the river. Through full submersion baptism the two parts of spirit and water meet up and become one.

....
karma...incarnations...deja vu

It means that for most of your life you were a serious f**k up, maybe a prostitute, criminal, or drug addict.

And to make up for it, you become annoyingly religious, to the point it consumes your life, you piss off everyone around you by spewing quotes from the bible and questioning other's religion. All this in hopes that Hey-zoos, God, Mary, and the goats will forgive you and let you into Heaven, where all the beer is free and you don't have to tip the bartender.

Some of your respondents here have come to faith that a rebirth is
spiritual and true.
I believe Our Savior meant exactly what he told Nicodemus. Forget about the foolishness of trying to please God in your flesh. It is the spirit in a man that must be reborn. To turn your spirit to Jesus is to allow the HOLY SPIRIT (comforter) to speak to your heart of Jesus and help you to desire to get under 'HIS yoke' (Matthew 11) and be concerned with only LOVE and the attributes He exhibited while here on earth.

I hope you read the entire four Gospels, where Matthew, Mark , Luke and John reported sincerely, the works, words and spirit of Jesus Christ.
I also pray you will seek HIM sincerely.

No thanks.

I'll pass. I don't need any guidance from wanna-be evangelists, for certain.

The way being born again was practiced in the Evangelical community which I came in contact with in my early adult life was for the person, in a contrite moment, to ask forgiveness of all one's sins and immediately after to ask God through Jesus Christ to come into one's life. In this way one would be reborn.

I did it. I distinctly remember feeling something, which I attributed to the physical presence of the Christian God, thus confirming beyond a doubt for my uncritical mind proof of existence of all the things in the Bible.

Slappy Doo Hoo has described above what I was like as a born again Christian. It never occured to me I was seriously deluded; rather I felt it my obligation at every opportunity to get more heathens turned to Christ. I was a first rate jerk.

The only redeeming thing about my experience was that religion became a passion of mine, and I began to learn everything I could about it. That it lead to unbelief and finally peace of mind is all I have to say about it.

Tycoon, not everyone SPOUTS 'religion'. My loving Jesus and the virtues He teaches, makes MY spirit born again, NOT "religious" . Other persons must seek these things for themselves.
Gelisgesti asked what does it mean to be born again. He wants each answer does he not, Ragman? A disagreeing reply does not make one person a devil or a heathen, and make another one a holy saint... it just gathers the beliefs of each one.
I, personally, have no good to boast about... and no power to change anyone else. I am JOYFUL, however, that I have been born again!

Some good responses. For emphasis let me repost ..."Very truly, I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God without being born of water and Spirit."

To understand 'born again' consider the sequence of events that led us to our present birth in very simple terms.
First the sex act occurs resulting in an egg that is fertilized by the male sperm ..... the resulting DNA is a combination of half egg and half sperm DNA. Still keeping it simple, the result after a nine month growing and development period is a new person. A person with a DNA that, while not a perfect match, is a very close match to the parents combined sample. If you have ever witnessed a birth you will know what I mean when I tell you there is a whole lot of 'water' involved.

As for the spirit part we can discuss that later. For now try to think of your child as a combination of you, your mate. her mother and father, your mother and father etc... times a million billion years. How many times has the DNA wheel of chance come up with the identical combination, the perfect match of the DNA you are sitting there with as you read this .... only without your memories
Born again, but with no 'easily accessible' knowledge about the lives stored in your DNA.

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Of course, I can't remember where I read it, but I remember reading somewhere that some Native American tribe(s) calls birth or being born "crossing the waters".

What are the statistical probabilities for a perfect DNA match within a given amount of time? And then you'd have to have had the person whose DNA matched your future father's (and back down the line through grandparents, greats, great-greats, etc) interact with the person whose DNA matched your future mother's to have created that person from the past whose DNA would be a match to yours sometime in the future. What are the chances of that?

It's a really interesting concept though...

Morning aidan.

Great lead in to the next segment of my fantasy. Maybe you didn't read it ... Could it be that you 'knew' it? Other than the plans for the construction of your physical form, what other information could the double helix contain?

There will never be a 'perfect replication' of any given DNA sample as this would lead to a reduction of the gene pool and stagnation of the species. Still one genome off would be acceptable.

I don't know. I had the opportunity to go see the genome project when it was in Philadelphia, but had to change plans at the last minute, so I missed it.

I'm almost afraid to post this, because I could very well be wrong (science is not my strong point and when I last took a biology course, dna hadn't been mapped) but my impression is that all the characteristics that are considered to be the result of genetic inheritance are contained in the strands of dna. That would include various aptitudes, skills, and potential for talent, intelligence, and tendencies-in short, most of what makes an individual uniquely who they are. And then to what extent those aptitudes and skills and that potential is developed depends on various environmental factors.

Is that correct?

But I like what one poster said about being given a life and then adopting a consciousness that transforms that life one way or another. It reminds me of another thing I'm sure you've heard, "Everyone has two lives, the one they're given and the one that they make". (Again, I don't know who to attribute it to, I just know I've read it or heard it).
Maybe the life that an individual makes is influenced by "the knowledge about the lives stored in their DNA" that he or she somehow "knows" without knowing how or why they know it.

Hey, I doubt if it would be specific information like .... birthday June 21st .... more like .... early life something mega went down but I can't remember exactly what. I've often wondered if a baby is born with a blank mind or if information had been written to it, beginning with conception..
It would be hard to recall anything relevant to your father or mother's life that would gain you any perspective. Actually it will be far in the future before the ability to decipher any information of value from a DNA sample. Look how long it took to map it

In a sense I am born again every morning.

"Sleep. Those littles slices of death. How I loath them"
Shakesphere felt the same way JLN

thats what I'm talking about

klik me

Actually, I love my respites from conscious life. Indeed, I sometimes feel that my unconscious life is the best part.
On some occasions I think of my night-time sleep as sporadic naps in one very long day (journey?).