This bit from Sam Harris in his speech/article “The Problem with Atheism”, on why “atheists” should not discount “mystical” or “spiritual” experience outright, seems appropriate for my state of mind earlier this week:
“Even when everything has gone as well as it can go, the search for happiness continues, the effort required to keep doubt and dissatisfaction and boredom at bay continues, moment to moment . . .
If we enjoy some great professional success, our feelings of accomplishment remain vivid and intoxicating for about an hour, or maybe a day, but then people will begin to ask us ‘So, what are you going to do next? Don’t you have anything else in the pipeline?’ Steve Jobs releases the IPhone, and I’m sure it wasn’t twenty minutes before someone asked, ‘when are you going to make this thing smaller?’ Notice that very few people at this juncture, no matter what they’ve accomplished, say, ‘I’m done. I’ve met all my goals. Now I’m just going to stay here eat ice cream until I die in front of you.’”
Posted February 28, 2008 | ∞ | File under: atheism, sam harris
