It's the easy route. All the apologist's have defended your positions before you were conceived.

Traumatized, fearful, sure. Probably willfully ignorant. Sure.

People confuse the terms " knowledge " and " belief ".
Knowledge is an intellectual thing. I know the chair exists. I know the table exists.I can see these things, touch them, and examine them. I do not believe the chair exists.
Once you know a thing you can no longer believe it exists.
You can only believe a thing that you don't know. Belief implies a lack of knowledge.
Do you believe in extra-terrestrial life? You probably do. But, there's no proof of it. Yet almost everyone believes it exists!. Are the believers in extra-terrestrial life being willfully ignorant?
Belief implies a lack of knowledge.
I believe in extra-terrestrial life, but I don't know it exists. There's nothing wrong with that statement.
If a person insists they don't believe in extra-terrestrial life because there's no proof being willfully ignorant? Or, simply arrogant or stubborn?
Knowledge is a process of discovery. The lack of knowledge is indicative of a lack of progress and not everyone goes at the same speed.

They have to be. That is the only way that anyone could believe in some of the idiocy in the bible. It has to be an active effort too, because there is just too much that is easily refuted with just common sense.

If you ask a religious person what would happen if brothers and sisters and cousins had kids, they could probably parse out that there would be some retardation in there. Yet they somehow believe that the world was populated from adam and eve. There had to be some brother/ sister mating going on there, and then some cousins and such. Holy genetic bottleneck batman!

No ,no body is willfully ignorant OR intelligent,If this was not the case everyone would choose to be An Einstein

No ,because willfully means that they chose to be in this state of ignorance ,when it is a fact that most people were indoctrinated into a religion from birth there for this is not willfull.To overcome this brainwashing you must possess a certain trait or characteristic . If this was not true common sense would make every one a nobeliever.Brain washing can prevent smart people from thinking logically .If these same individuals were born atheist they would most probably still be atheist.Also a religious individual can have a higher I Q ( relative intelligence)than a non religious individual

Two words. Cognitive dissonance.

Being a believer doesn't make you an idiot.
Being an atheist doesn't make you a genius.
There are stupid people who don't know how stupid they are and smart people who aren't as smart as they think they are.

I’ve noticed lots of them will willingly dumb themselves down just to defend their beliefs. Ive actually had them try to mix science and Gods together, which me know doesn’t mix. I actually had a woman in her59s believe it was possible for a human to get pregnant by a leopard cause she was convinced human and animal DNA is the same, failing to understand how chromosomes, genetic codes and molecules had to be compatible with one another to reproduce a new life, which a human and leopard obviously would never be able to do. This same woman also told me that the reason the bible says earth is six thousand years old when it has been scientifically proven earth is way older is cause God paused time when he was handling the devil when he kicked him out of heaven. Just like she said the reason the world hasn’t ended yet is cause god is waiting on that specific last person to get saved. At this point, I really just wanted to slap the shit out of her for pulling B.S answers out of her ass. It’s really just sad. Sad and annoying.

Of course they are but, the question is more why are they rather than are they. Many are truly ignorant of reality because the only thing they know is what they have been taught and some are just in denial of the truth.

It would appear they have to be to some extent. One needs to suppress any nagging curiosity, and the urge to question , otherwise there's a danger of running into truth !

And then what would they do !?

no just misguided

Religions ask for faith, belief not founded on proof but on spiritual conviction. If they ignore proof or choose not to seek justification, I would say that amounts to wilful ignorance.

Some are, but I think most are just indoctrinated and they don't see a problem with believing without reason. They are told that faith is a gift, that those who believe but have not seen are blessed, to come to religion with the openness of a child, to never question God, etc.

Thousands of years of brainwashing can do that to a person. They believe that since that belief is so ingrained in society that it must be true.

I opened my eyes (and mind) and found my truth.

Subconsciously, yes... I know cuz I was one. Keep in mind that for believers, faith is more important than facts. So if something seems wrong or contradictory, they're told to have faith and trust in God. It's the total antithesis of being skeptical, careful, curious, and realistic.

Yes. And worse. Willfully gulable.