I can't really help you with what it's like to have freedom from the church because I was never really a believer even though my parents took me. They did, however, stop making me go to church after I told them I didn't believe in god, so the most freedom I experienced was free Sunday mornings.
Even if the open windows of science at first make us shiver after the cozy indoor warmth of traditional humanizing myths, in the end the fresh air brings vigor, and the great spaces have a splendor of their own - Bertrand Russell
