That's nice, but I'd rather have confidence in myself and my own abilities then rely on someone or something else. That way if I end up in some kind of trouble I only have myself to blame. I learn from my mistakes and it makes me stronger. In my opinion, to surrender all that to some kind of higher power is to also deny your own accomplishments. I always hear religious people say God helped me do this and God helped me do that. Like, wouldn't you have liked to have been the one to have achieved your goals? That's just my two cents though.

hoo-boy!

\*grabs popcorn and waits for the flames to rise

Yes, I agree with you! Indeed, I was an atheist before, but being seemingly cast into darkness allowed me to see the *true light*. Now that I no longer rely on my eyes to "see", I rely on my Lord's arm to lead me where I need to go.

But brother, it worries me how little people around me trust in the Almighty. Though I have changed for the better, my family and friends yet question me, unable to see what I see. And I cannot help but think that this un-enlightening was a message, a message from above ...

We must stab everybody's eyes out! We must share this feeling of greater trust with the unbelievers! Only then can we vanquish atheism and all become one with our Lord!

Nope.

I used to be Christian too, born into it in fact, also born blind. But after about 20 years of false hope and empty promises, I slowly came to the realization that, either God is an insecure jerk who would blind somebody just so he could show off how cool he is later on, or that there was no God, and genetic abnormalities just happened sometimes.
I, along with friends and family, have achieved more in the last eight years since rejecting religion, then faith or any God has done for me in the previous 20 years of being Christian.

I'd rather not trust and rely on someone who blinded me

My vision loss sent me from atheist to agnostic to polytheistic to 1st Degree initiate in a Wiccan tradition.

If your faith and belief in God/Jesus help you cope with your sight loss, that’s fine. If you want to share that with other people of faith, that’s fine. Your last paragraph, though…nope.

I was born mostly blind;I’ve seen the same amount my entire life. Thus, my blindness has never really had anything to do with my religion. I grew up Christian, became Kemetic (ancient Egyptian paganism), and eventually an atheist. I simply don’t have good enough evidence for the gods’ existence. Much as I want to continue believing that the gods are out there, listening to me and helping me out, I can’t. I can’t choose to believe in something just because I want it to be true.

But again, my vision loss has nothing to do with this. It’s not: a loving god wouldn’t make me blind; therefore there is no god. I don’t think I ever even prayed for sight. I became an atheist for the same reasons that sighted people become atheists.

And unfortunately, while many religions people are chill, including my various religious friends, there is a vocal subset that pair their evangelism with a dose of ableism that I have no patience for. These are the complete strangers who approach me on the street to tell me that Jesus will heal me if I will only believe. I do think it comes from a good place, but also from the assumption that every blind person must be miserable and desperate to have full sight. They don’t stop to ask what I want to pray about, because obviously I want my sight back. Meanwhile, I don’t miss what I never had and am already living my best blind life.

Anyway, as a consequence, this has made me both wary and impatient with anyone wanting to “share the good news”, just waiting for the part where they assume I hate my life because of my eyes. I cope with this now by taking the opportunity to question their beliefs, share why I don’t believe, and maybe sow a little doubt, not really maliciously. I want people to make decisions based on the best evidence, and critically examining one’s deeply-held beliefs is part of that. That’s how I became an atheist. Anyway, if you approach me to talk about your beliefs, I figure that’s an invitation to questions and discussion about them.

Suffice to say, this post came off, especially that last paragraph, as less about sharing your own experience, and more about converting strangers to your beliefs. And frankly, I’ve tried Christianity, and it didn’t hold up under scrutiny.

I have multiple blind people in my family and they are all religious. Their faith has carried them through a lot and is a comfort to them.

We all have different experiences and react in different ways. Personally, I find that if I dwell in bitterness, it makes my life worse and it makes things worse for those who care about me. Yes, things aren't perfect. But there's been blessings too. I just think that no matter what you believe, using it to make yourself kinder and showing grace to others and yourself is far more important that dwelling on the 'might have been'. Also understanding where something comes from, like a place of love, is more important than what is given to us.


Hate, vitriol, bile, bitterness... the world has enough of it. Lashing out just causes more hurt than already exists.

Mod note -- everyone deals with things in different ways. Some turn to themselves, some turn to drink, and some turn to the sky.

If you want to comment on this because you want to fight the religion point: **don't**.

If you're not religious, that's fine; there's no reason to pick a fight. OP has just as much right to be religious as someone else has to not be (or of a different religion).

tl;dr: if you don't have anything nice to say, move on.