Strict materialism is an interesting notion. Loosely defined, it means that everything in the universe is made up of matter only, without anything else conjoined to it. There is no spirit, there is no consciousness (apart from that which derives from matter and neurons in your brain), and there is no God. Everything simply has a natural cause, which is based on a natural cause before it, and so on. In short, the world and our lives are simply the result of lucky, but accidental occurrences of life-giving matter coming together in just the correct way.
This view is popular nowadays, in large part I think because it is merely a reflection of operational science – with which Americans seem obsessed. Now operational science is a wonderful tool. It has allowed the growth of modern medicine. It has helped lay the framework by which we can come to understand chemical interactions, as well as other repeatable scientific events. It cannot, however, help us with regard to historical science. In other words, it cannot help us determined what actually happened thousands or millions of years ago. We can introspect on it and draw inferences from what we understand today, but we cannot say with any degree of certainty that “the universe formed in just such a way”, or that “macro-evolution began like such and such, and will end like thus and such.” It provides no light into the realm of the spiritual, into faith, or into anything other than the closed materialistic system which can be examined in a test tube.
At first glance, this can be a seductive philosophy because it dismisses the need to understand anything other than physical phenomena. The answer a materialist might give to the question “what about God?” may very well be “I don’t know” or “I don’t believe in Him because I can’t see or touch Him.” And that would be that. But we know very well that things exist which we cannot see or touch. Until recently, we had no concept of the atom or the germ – but there they are. Add to this that we can come to know things based on different types of evidences (like history and logic), and strict materialism runs into some snags.
But the greatest shortcoming of materialism I believe comes in the following form. Because if you really believe this way, you must accept that human beings are simply walking bags of chemicals. That the world around us is a lucky accident; when we see a stream or a mountain or a sunrise, these are all accidentally beautiful. You must believe that anything you do in your entire life will eventually come to nothing, and the same with the life of your children, and their children. We are all blips on a cosmic radar screen that are here today, and gone tomorrow… with no greater meaning attached. If you are a moral person that is great, but if you are not – there are no real consequences; because someday our planet and sun will even cease to exist - so what does it matter? In its place will eventually be either something different, or nothing at all. You will not be remembered for anything, you are not special or unique, and you will eventually be forgotten by space and time altogether.
Do you actually believe this? Me neither. Fortunately for us, God does exist. We can and do live on after this life, our actions and accomplishments are remembered, and you and I are an important part of this creation. If you had not been born, there are certain things that would not have been accomplished or brought to fruition in this world in the unique way that only you could do them. We are not a throwaway race. And by grace of God, we do not need to live that way.
This view is popular nowadays, in large part I think because it is merely a reflection of operational science – with which Americans seem obsessed. Now operational science is a wonderful tool. It has allowed the growth of modern medicine. It has helped lay the framework by which we can come to understand chemical interactions, as well as other repeatable scientific events. It cannot, however, help us with regard to historical science. In other words, it cannot help us determined what actually happened thousands or millions of years ago. We can introspect on it and draw inferences from what we understand today, but we cannot say with any degree of certainty that “the universe formed in just such a way”, or that “macro-evolution began like such and such, and will end like thus and such.” It provides no light into the realm of the spiritual, into faith, or into anything other than the closed materialistic system which can be examined in a test tube.
At first glance, this can be a seductive philosophy because it dismisses the need to understand anything other than physical phenomena. The answer a materialist might give to the question “what about God?” may very well be “I don’t know” or “I don’t believe in Him because I can’t see or touch Him.” And that would be that. But we know very well that things exist which we cannot see or touch. Until recently, we had no concept of the atom or the germ – but there they are. Add to this that we can come to know things based on different types of evidences (like history and logic), and strict materialism runs into some snags.
But the greatest shortcoming of materialism I believe comes in the following form. Because if you really believe this way, you must accept that human beings are simply walking bags of chemicals. That the world around us is a lucky accident; when we see a stream or a mountain or a sunrise, these are all accidentally beautiful. You must believe that anything you do in your entire life will eventually come to nothing, and the same with the life of your children, and their children. We are all blips on a cosmic radar screen that are here today, and gone tomorrow… with no greater meaning attached. If you are a moral person that is great, but if you are not – there are no real consequences; because someday our planet and sun will even cease to exist - so what does it matter? In its place will eventually be either something different, or nothing at all. You will not be remembered for anything, you are not special or unique, and you will eventually be forgotten by space and time altogether.
Do you actually believe this? Me neither. Fortunately for us, God does exist. We can and do live on after this life, our actions and accomplishments are remembered, and you and I are an important part of this creation. If you had not been born, there are certain things that would not have been accomplished or brought to fruition in this world in the unique way that only you could do them. We are not a throwaway race. And by grace of God, we do not need to live that way.
