True death is religion.  Death occurs when life becomes stagnant and ceases to grow… deceased.  When one’s quest for knowledge ceases and they delude themselves into thinking they have all the answers, an intellectual death occurs.  At that point, and only then, can a true rebirth happen a rebirth into knowledge and away from bronze aged ignorance.  Personally, I experienced two such rebirths.  I was well on my way to learning and becoming disillusioned with the church in my later teen years when my accident occurred at 17.  I suffered a brain injury and my mind was in a very impressionable state, much like a young child,  All around me my devoutly religious family was going on and on how god saved me and how I had such beautiful things in store and how god was my strength and that I owe all thanks to him.  I was stuck, trapped in the theist gridlock, much like a child being raised in the church…I prevailed, my brain healed and i saw through the lies, again. it took around seven or eight years for my brain to heal to that point.  I have grown, intellectually, by bounds, since that time.