C.S. Lewis provided some useful advice for those seeking to avoid God:
“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.”
This is from his 1967 essay, “The Seeing Eye,” and would be easy to update for an internet-obsessed age.
You could follow the same advice if you
- Never want to maximize your potential to ‘dent the universe,’ a la Steve Jobs’ recommendation
- Want to avoid meaningful relationships in every context
- Insist on avoiding your responsibility to use your gifts and experiences to help others
- Prefer misery
