Is it better to be led astray from the light, or to have never found it at all?

[Foreigner]

I recently found the following passages from the Bible - 2 Peter 2:20-22 (In NKJV version to be more straightforward and understandable)



Do you agree or disagree that it is better to have never found the light than to find it and then go astray from it? Why so?

Do you think that the path of straying from enlightenment in favour of the opposite direction is one that is generally a choice to follow? Why?

This theme is repeated among all religions and spiritual systems I have come across.

It has two meanings which are practically universal:

1) Ignorant evil is more forgivable than evil that knows the truth but does evil anyway. "Forgive them Father for they know not what they do." The karmic infraction committed by the knowing evil is much worse.

2) When you know the truth you have a responsibility to follow it and stand up for it. If you turn your back on it and commit evil then you are more damned than the person who never knew the truth.

My personal view on this is that there are many "awakenings" in life, not just one. It's possible to fall back into ignorance again, but not completely. I don't think enlightenment has anything to do with knowledge. It's a state of consciousness, one that can occur and de-occur. For some people awakening is temporary and for others it is permanent. There is no pattern.

 

[nepalnt21]

"it's better to have loved and lost..." ???

i often wonder how many priests, preachers, rabbis, imams have lost their faith and yet continue to tow the line in order to maintain the status quo, or fear retaliation from those that fear/ judge/ hate apostates.

how many atheists are still going through the churchy motions? gotta be more than a couple...

how many, like me, were still clinging to this amorphous blob of a god idea conditioned into us from childhood before we realized that there just hasn't been a good reason given to us yet?

well i, for one, think we ought to celebrate seekers of truth, critical thinkers, skeptics; (even those of us that are strictly theistic ought to) because if it's the truth, ought it not reveal itself to those that are open to new information? it's pretty telling that there is ridicule and persecution of those that stray from the faith; if it's the truth, does it need us lowly, terra- firma- dwelling primates defending it with violence and outcasting?

well, i'm still waiting for my big reveal (escuse me if i seem a little sarcasmic about it), i don't think i missed anything by not going to church anymore...

and i feel like it makes up who i am, that i went through most of my life as a faithful adherent to the supernatural.

but where's any shred of good evidence?

waiting, waiting...