Being born again is a central focus of fundamentalism. Born agains are sort of super human. They produce the infallible words of the Holy Spirit. Born agains don't have to have knowledge to be infallible, because it is the knowledge of the Holy Spirit that they produce. And the contradictions don't matter, because human knowledge is corruption.

The Bible emphasizes the importance of acquiring knowledge from beginning to end (Mat 13:12, 15:10)(Mark 4:13, 7:14, 8:21)(Luke 8-18, 24:45)(John 7:24)(John 8:43).

This state is not the laughing matter that it might seem to be. It's the justification for the intolerance that fundamentalists are noted for.

There is a necessity to being born again in the fundamentalist theology. First, the theology is dependent upon an unquestionable interpretation of the Bible, which they call inerrancy of God's word. But inerrancy is too questionable. Fundamentalists cannot allow one person's opinion be put up against another's, particularly when they are so lacking in logic and credibility. So they must be personally superior and unquestionable. Being born again does that.

The basis of being born again is a subjective experience the person had, usually several years back. It's like a drunk in the gutters saying he is president of the United States because he was inaugurated several years ago. A previous subjective experience does nothing to change sin, morality, Christianity, God or a person's credibility or worth. But fundamentalists claim it does.

There are two points to be made about the supposed subjective experience of being born again. One, the persons are so dishonest in the visible realities that they could only be expected to be lying about their past experiences. Two, subjective experiences are created and exploited by satan for his purposes, and they are not a reliable basis for evaluating honest religion.

The situation is the same as for other cults where minds and lives are controlled. Where the challenges of life demand forward progress in knowledge and standards, the victims of such cults go backwards.

One of the worst things about fundamentalism is that it is taking over all western religions including Catholicism. Rationality and normal standards are disappearing throughout western religions because of the fundamentalist trend.

And the extremists are not significantly different on the liberal side. The basics of corruption are the same at both ends of the spectrum. Intolerance and absolutism are becoming ingrained among liberal extremists also.

One of the casualties is Christianity itself. Not only is the standard the opposite of what Christ taught, but it is a battle against Christ's teaching.

The term "born again" starts with a quote from Christ (John 3:3). It says, "No one can see the reign of God unless he is begotten from above (or born again)." Catholics translate it as "begotten from above," while Protestants say "born again." Both phrases mean the same thing. To be begotten from above is to be born again.

One of the errors is to pretend that humans should already be born again. In the context of Christ's statement, that would have to mean they see the reign of God.

What Christ was saying is that God does the saving. A person then undergoes change under God's control.

Honesty requires that the rest of Christ's teaching be included in the interpretation. He also said that the path to life is hard to find and follow (Mat 7:14). And all of his teaching was a description of that path.

What it means is that a Christian is supposed to be making continual improvements in overcoming sin and learning moral behavior, which requires a relationship to God.

What fundamentalists claim, imply or pretend is that being born again is something that either did or did not happen to someone, past tense. There's no process, it just comes out of nowhere. There is no morality taught or constructive path that is followed.

They also assume that there are no human responsibilities involved. They say Christ chose some persons to be born again, and others were rejected.

As a consequence, fundamentalists make a judgmental decision about each person to categorize him as either being, or not being, born again. It's sort of like a fraternity. If they decide you're not a born again, everything you say is human corruption which cannot be allowed to contaminate their infallible truth.

A sad fact about fundamentalism is that it turns Christianity into something objectionable. Doing so is often the purpose, at least for the instigators. Every corruption has instigators and gullible followers.