“A man becomes thinner and thinner day by day; he is wasting away. What can the matter be? He does not suffer want. ‘No certainly not,’ says the physician, ‘it doesn’t come from that, it comes precisely from eating, from the fact that he eats out of season, eats without being hungry, uses stimulants to arouse a little bit of appetite, and in that way he ruins his digestion, fades away as if he were suffering want.’ So it is religously. The most fatal thing of all is to satisfy a want which is not yet felt, so that without waiting till the want is present, one anticipates it, likely also uses stimulants to bring about something which is supposed to be a want, and then satisfies it. And this is shocking! And yet this is what they do in the religious sphere, whereby they really are cheating men out of what constitutes the significance of life, and helping people to waste life.”
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~Source: Attack Upon “Christendom” (1854-55)
Author: Søren Kierkegaard
