The unfortunate illusions of youth.

If I hear the word 'freedom' coming from the mouth of an unthinking person (usually youth) again, I think I shall react rather negatively.
This excerpt from an article by Bill Meuhlenberg....  http://www.billmuehlenberg.com/2013/09/15/atheism-and-freedom/
....rather captures the illusion too many have about the nature of freedom:

And notice what she especially relishes, what her new god is: freedom. As she says, “freedom from a life centered around obedience and submission, freedom to think anything, freedom from guilt and shame, freedom from the perpetual heavy obligation to keep every thought pure.”

In other words, she is relishing the fact that she has cast off all restraints, rejected all boundaries, spat upon all restrictions, and embraced radical freedom. The sad truth is however, she is living a life of illusion. There is no such thing as perfect freedom.

Indeed, to seek to cast off all yokes and contemptuously reject all limitations simply puts one in new and even far worse bondage. We in fact live in a moral universe which has built-in limitations. Seeking to pretend those boundaries do not exist does not mean they are not there.

And a life full of such rejection of absolutes (for that is what she is in fact rejecting here) means she will not be able to properly enjoy life at all. No one can enjoy a game of chess in a rule-free world. It is exactly because there are rules, boundaries, and restrictions that a game like chess is so enjoyable.

Cast off the boundaries and you no longer have chess. That is true for all of life. We are designed to live in a world full of boundaries and restrictions, and our real freedom comes in acknowledging and fitting in with those restrictions. Rejecting them does not mean freedom – it means greater bondage.

Biblically speaking there was only one person who thought he was completely free: the prodigal son. Yet all his freedom in the end meant was that he had the whole pigsty to himself. You are welcome to it bud – that does not sound like real life to me.
 

Note also that it was written by a young woman who lives in a country that enjoys real political freedom. Freedoms that have quite likely cost many people their lives. I wonder how she would react in a world in which the freedoms she would like to live are punishable by death. Arabia, Iran, etc...for example. Would she be so 'free' with her opinions I wonder?