I never really understood that saying, until I left Christianity four years ago. Ignorance is bliss. It can be. When you are a young child indoctrinated into a particular faith, especially an Abrahamic one, you are given a set of moral codes to live by, that you don’t question. Once I hit my teen years, I had doubts…so many doubts. I didn’t believe in heaven or hell, and I didn’t like how people who weren’t of my faith, were being treated and discriminated against, by people of my faith.
Ignorance is bliss.
Today, I was talking to a friend of mine, who has been a Christian her entire life, since childhood. When I answered the phone, her voice sounded serious, and a bit shaken. She told me that she didn’t want anyone to know what she was about to tell me. I thought, wow, this must be bad. But, she ended up telling me that she hasn’t been a ‘’true’’ Christian in her heart, for some time now, and that she believes she is an atheist. She started crying, because no one knows this, it was overwhelming for her to share this with another person. I told her that this is a good thing, and to not feel guilty or ashamed of it. She explained how she isn’t ready to come out to others, and she still intends to attend church services. I said, you say that now, but once you know the truth about religion, something changes…you can never go back.
I find atheism to be logical, yet on an emotional level, it leaves me wanting. This is but one path that the journey will take my friend. When you are a lifelong Christian (or believer, in general) it is very hard to let go of the fear, guilt and shame associated with abandoning your religion. I conveyed to her today, that the road will be hard, but in an odd way, worth it.
Ignorance is bliss.
Knowledge and believing in the here and now, and not in fantasies and fairy tales, should be seen as a positive. But, it is very daunting to leave a secure place of fantasy, for an insecure place of reality. I’ve known people who have left religion and identify as atheists, and they seem unscathed by their journeys, unless they are good at hiding their feelings? That could be.
My friend sounded relieved, but I told her, that ignorance is bliss.
When you go on believing lies, you don’t know they are lies, even if you have doubts about your beliefs. You just keep going on with your everyday life, praising Jesus and thinking that he will make everything right in your life. Because this is what you are taught, and to leave it, would be sinful…would be wrong. But, then one day…you realize that it isn’t true, and that you now have knowledge that can set you free. But that freedom comes with a price, and that price is discovering who you are, without religion telling you so. That is very hard, and if you have not gone through it, you will never know how arduous the journey is for ex-theists. My friend and I live in the United States and the year is 2015...and yet, she is afraid to tell a soul that she is an atheist. That she no longer believes in Christianity. How about that. How sad is that.
Ignorance is bliss.
My friend will have a hard road ahead of her…for she will lose friends, and her family will chastise her choice to depart from their truth. She will eventually not be able to carry on a façade, but instead she will wish to be free. But in the meantime, and there is always a meantime, she will struggle as I have to make sense of this life, without a religion telling me how to make sense of it.
IGNORANCE IS BLISS.
But so is freedom.
Ignorance is bliss.
Today, I was talking to a friend of mine, who has been a Christian her entire life, since childhood. When I answered the phone, her voice sounded serious, and a bit shaken. She told me that she didn’t want anyone to know what she was about to tell me. I thought, wow, this must be bad. But, she ended up telling me that she hasn’t been a ‘’true’’ Christian in her heart, for some time now, and that she believes she is an atheist. She started crying, because no one knows this, it was overwhelming for her to share this with another person. I told her that this is a good thing, and to not feel guilty or ashamed of it. She explained how she isn’t ready to come out to others, and she still intends to attend church services. I said, you say that now, but once you know the truth about religion, something changes…you can never go back.
I find atheism to be logical, yet on an emotional level, it leaves me wanting. This is but one path that the journey will take my friend. When you are a lifelong Christian (or believer, in general) it is very hard to let go of the fear, guilt and shame associated with abandoning your religion. I conveyed to her today, that the road will be hard, but in an odd way, worth it.
Ignorance is bliss.
Knowledge and believing in the here and now, and not in fantasies and fairy tales, should be seen as a positive. But, it is very daunting to leave a secure place of fantasy, for an insecure place of reality. I’ve known people who have left religion and identify as atheists, and they seem unscathed by their journeys, unless they are good at hiding their feelings? That could be.
My friend sounded relieved, but I told her, that ignorance is bliss.
When you go on believing lies, you don’t know they are lies, even if you have doubts about your beliefs. You just keep going on with your everyday life, praising Jesus and thinking that he will make everything right in your life. Because this is what you are taught, and to leave it, would be sinful…would be wrong. But, then one day…you realize that it isn’t true, and that you now have knowledge that can set you free. But that freedom comes with a price, and that price is discovering who you are, without religion telling you so. That is very hard, and if you have not gone through it, you will never know how arduous the journey is for ex-theists. My friend and I live in the United States and the year is 2015...and yet, she is afraid to tell a soul that she is an atheist. That she no longer believes in Christianity. How about that. How sad is that.
Ignorance is bliss.
My friend will have a hard road ahead of her…for she will lose friends, and her family will chastise her choice to depart from their truth. She will eventually not be able to carry on a façade, but instead she will wish to be free. But in the meantime, and there is always a meantime, she will struggle as I have to make sense of this life, without a religion telling me how to make sense of it.
IGNORANCE IS BLISS.
But so is freedom.
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