Avoiding God

C.S. Lewis had this to say about avoiding God.

The avoiding, in many times and places, has proved so difficult that a very large part of the human race failed to achieve it. But in our own time and place it is extremely easy. Avoid silence, avoid solitude, avoid any train of thought that leads off the beaten track. Concentrate on money, sex, status, health and (above all) on your own grievances. Keep the radio on. Live in a crowd. Use plenty of sedation. If you must read books, select them very carefully. But you’d be safer to stick to the papers. You’ll find the advertisements helpful; especially those with a sexy or a snobbish appeal.1 

I wonder what he would have to say about smart-phones, tablet computers, and mega-shopping-malls?


1. C.S. Lewis, “The Seeing Eye,” a paper collected in Christian Reflections, ed. Walter Hooper (Eerdmans, 1976), 168-69. Also quoted in "C. S. Lewis on Avoiding God," John Stackhouse blog, May 2, 2013, http://www.johnstackhouse.com/2013/05/02/c-s-lewis-on-avoiding-god/