By the way, can you show us where it actually states this in the Bible?

Or is this just more Cowboyainity?

Either you are just wrong or you're just lying. Christianity is FILLED with rituals. Designed to reinforce the belief system and to keep people from thinking too hard.

Well, most "Christians" as well as others would use the "doctrines of men" to condemm others.

Read Romans 2 and make up your own mind.

Christianity is a combination of may Pagan beliefs.

>>>>>>> Deut7:2 <<<<<<<

"And when the LORD thy God shall deliver them before thee; thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shalt make no covenant with them, nor shew mercy unto them:"

v2. "...Thou shalt smite them and utterly destroy them."

Those who think that there was cruelty in this command,
usurp too great authority in respect to Him who is
the judge of all.

The objection is specious
that the people of God were unreasonably imbued
with inhumanity, so that, advancing with murderous atrocity,
they should spare neither sex nor age.
But we must first remember
what we shall see hereafter, i.e.,
that when God had destined the land for His people,
He was at liberty utterly to destroy the former inhabitants,
so that its possession might be free for them.
We must then go further, and say that He desired
the just demonstration of His vengeance
to appear upon these nations. Four hundred years before
He had justly punished their many sins,
yet had He suspended His sentence
and patiently borne with them,
if haply they might repent.

That sentence is well known,
"The iniquity of the Amorites
is not yet full." (Genesis 15:16.)

After God had shewn His mercy for four centuries,
and this clemency had increased both their audacity
and madness, so that they had not ceased
to provoke His wrath, surely it was no act of cruelty
to compensate for the delay by the grievousness
of the punishment.

And hence appears the foul
and detestable perversity of the human intellect.

We are indignant if He does not smile at once;

if He delays punishment

our zeal accuses Him of slackness

and want of energy;

yet, when He comes forth

as the avenger of guilt,

we either call Him cruel,

or at least complain of His severity.

Yet His justice will always absolve Him;
and our calumnies and detractions will recoil
upon our own heads. He commanded seven nations
to be utterly destroyed;

that is to say,

after they had added sin to sin for 400 years,

so that their accumulation was immense,
and experience had taught that they were obstinate
and incurable. It will therefore be said elsewhere,
that the land "spewed them out," (Leviticus 18:28,)
as if it had eased itself,
when burdened by their filthiness.
If impiety is intolerable to the lifeless element,
why should we wonder that God
in His character of Judge exercised extreme severity?
But if God's wrath was just,
He might surely choose whatever ministers
and executioners of it He pleased;
and when He had given this commission to His people,
it was not unreasonable that He should forbid them
to pity those whom He had appointed for destruction.

For what can be more preposterous
than for men to vie with God in clemency?
and when it pleases the Master to be severe,
for the servants to assume to themselves the right
of shewing mercy? Therefore God often reproves
the Israelites for being improperly merciful.
And hence it came to pass that the people,
whom they ought to have destroyed, became as thorns
and briars to prick them.
(Joshua 23:13, and throughout the book of Judges.)

Away, then, with all temerity,

whereby we would presumptuously restrict God's power

to the puny measure of our reason;

and rather let us learn reverently
to regard those works of His,
whose cause is concealed from us,
than wantonly criticise them. Especially when He declares to us
the just grounds of His vengeance,
let us learn to subscribe to His decrees
with the humility and modesty that becomes us,

rather than to oppose them in vain,
and indeed to our own confusion.

Does being 'born again' require some human ritual or can any person simply declare they are 'born again'?

I think you misunderstood Abra's meaning. He has never had the experience of being far from god.

God walks with each of us (from the moment we exist) could you but see through the veil you would know this in truth. When we are born into this world our sprit is born with us... There is no need to be 'born again', only a need to open the eye of the spirit.

When we breath, we breath the breath of god as we take in the air of the earth. Our physical bodies need the one. Our sprit is nutured by the other.

Truly,

I can't even begin to imagine existing without God. I never had that experience so I have no clue how that could even work.

a ghost by any other name is still a ghost ....Casper 3:16

This reveals a lot. If you feel that it's a "sacrifice" for you not to give into your egotistical urges to beat the crap out of other people who push your emotional buttons then I truly feel sorry for you indeed. Especially if you are keeping all this bottled up inside of you. You're just creating a pressure cooker that is bound to blow its top eventually when enough steam is built up and you just can't take it anymore.