If the church was merely what me and you experienced as children then it would not explain why it has thrived in the face of oppression for 2000 years. Its because it actually is the church I now see as an adult that explains it. I regret that you never made the same uturn concerning faith that I have and are instead left with a child's superficial view of church.
My view isn't the one I held as a child, though that's where my going to church ended, I've only been to funerals since and don't plan to go there for any other reason. It's not that surprising that the church thrived after it became a state religion of practically every European country and became instead the oppressor. Though not all they did was bad, they did destroy many religions and cultures with prejudice. Have you heard of the gnostics?
Most people are more concerned with money, sex, what is on TV, or who's at the bar to think about philosophy. However if you really think about it.
I'd assume most of those people aren't on RF debating.
I see those things as a waste of time like you do, but from a different perspective.
Unless God and faith in God exists (I am referring to the biblical God). There is no actual foundation for:
1. Racial equality.
I disagree. There never was a reason for racial inequality in the first place.
2. The sanctity of human life.
That is giving credit to your religion for something that people of other religions also have and no-religion.
3. The inherent worth of humanity.
I disagree.
4. Objective moral values and duties.
Duties are part of human societal structures. Moral values come from traditions more than they come from religion. Case in point is that until late, it used to be no different in the eyes of the law and morals how children were treated than adults. It was scientific and secular progress that changed all that. If objective morals of past religious folks had their say, we would still have child marriages in the west and equal punishments for them.
5. Ultimate hope.
6. Ultimate meaning.
I don't feel these are needed. If you need them, and feel your religion gives them to you that's a good thing. For me, accepting anything that comes is the way I go about things.
Born again is how a relationship with Jesus is established. We are all born separated from God (Which perfectly explains why we originally thought it fake or posturing), that is why we must be born again. Our first birth is how we gain a biological family, the second birth is how we gain a divine family. The roll that grace plays is in that we are all sinners we may be born again despite that based on the merit of God. You have the description down but not what your describing. It's the difference between Webster's definition of love and the actual experience of unconditional love of a mother (or father) towards a child (even if the child is misbehaving).
In gnostic view, knowledge of God is/was primary over faith in God. As such scriptures, church hierarchy and rituals played less of a role, because everyone could find knowledge within themselves. It sounds like how your faith in God is formed is closer to what the early church in it's heterogenous ways had, but what was lost with the suppression of the Gnostic Christians by the mainstream. The question that's more important to me is, is your experience of "being born again" a one time event and does it shake you in a way that you feel like you can ignore some of the scripture because "you know better" or do you feel like it binds you to it once and then you just accept all of the Bible like that.
Don't look at God through the lens of a child's experience in a church, look at God through the lens of a morally perfect God bleeding and dying on a cross to save all of humanity despite it's moral insanity and universal rebellion. All he asks is consent to live with him in eternal contentment. If you found him and were born again your experience in church would be radically recalibrated, plus you would then have the necessary foundation for all those things I listed above plus a thousand others similar to them.
I already have my perspective of god, though I'm not sure if our gods are the same and if they are, what explains the difference. My gnosis made me realize that no religion really points the way to right or wrong, but that we have to strive for that ourselves. Good intentions and reading books don't necessarily make our morals better, often people lose their lives or worse from people with good intentions that didn't have the real knowledge of how things work. I'm seeing this problem more when religion is used to divide between races or other traits they are born with.
