Materialism

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This isn’t just the attitude of the young. Adults are just as guilty of duplicity.

Stuck in This World

Materialism is the philosophy that reality consists only in the physical and tangible. Materialists seek their ultimate happiness in physical pleasures and possessions. They don’t believe in spiritual goods and they don’t really value human nature. People who embrace materialism often teeter between living life to the fullest and falling into the pit of despair.

The materialist assumption is that the tangible world is all that exists. Nothing exists if it cannot be proven true by science. The assumption is that any claim to truth without scientific evidence is nothing more than opinion. This means that what would be considered true through philosophy or faith is considered mere personal preference by a materialist, including many religious and moral truths. Of course, this view of reality in general has a great effect on a materialist’s view of human nature and human life in particular.

Materialists believe that human beings are nothing more than animals. We are bodies with biologically advanced brains, but there is nothing spiritual in human nature. Therefore the spiritual faculty of the intellect is explained away by focusing on the cerebral cortex and by denying the spiritual objects the intellect helps us to know. The spiritual faculty of free will simply does not exist in a materialistic framework. A true materialist would say that we do not have free will, but that the complexity of instinct, drives, biology, and environment creates the illusion of freedom. What we appear to choose to do is actually determined by these internal and external influences, and are not really choices at all.

This view of humanity leaves little room for human dignity. Human beings are only slightly higher than animals (and then only by chance). Lack of freedom means that while we are not culpable for our sins, we are also not able to take any credit for good acts that we do or for any accomplishments. Human beings have no connection with God, since God (not being scientifically quantifiable) doesn’t really exist anyway. So we are not created in the image and likeness of God. Our ultimate source of dignity, our ability to give and receive love, doesn’t exist because love is not scientific (or at least if it is reduced to something that science can study it loses its potency). Finally, materialism leaves nothing to which to aspire. Heaven does not exist. Human fulfillment is nonsense for mere animals. What do we have to look forward to?

Materialists have nothing to look forward to after this life, so they focus all of their happiness on this world. Materialists find their happiness in physical pleasures and possessions. It does not matter to them that pleasures & possessions are temporary, because this life is temporary anyway. Nor does it matter that they do not fulfill all parts of human nature, since they do not believe in the spiritual aspects of human nature anyway. Since materialists don’t believe in life beyond this physical world, they focus all of their attention on the here-and-now. The slogan “carpe diem” – seize the day – is their clarion call. Eat, drink and be merry today, for tomorrow we die!

There is something in all of us – our physical desires, damaged by sin – that finds materialism attractive. It may be tempting to throw off the apparent shackles of morality, to stop worrying about where we will end up in eternity, to stop self-sacrifice and and the self-imposed hardship of discipline and virtue, to live for the here and now, to seek only pleasure. There is part of each of us that finds materialism somewhat attractive. However, before we run out and adopt it as our life philosophy, perhaps we should examine it more closely.

The first problem with materialism is that it completely ignores part of human experience. In the field of psychology, non-physical elements of human life that cannot be scientifically quantified are “studied” all the time. In fact, the only fields that try to deny non-physical aspects of human nature are behaviorism and biological psychology. Behaviorism refers to the intangible aspects of human life as “the black box,” nearly admitting that they exist, but willfully refusing to believe they influence human life. Even these schools of psychology have softened from their purist origins, accepting that physical influences are not the only factors on human life and behavior.

Materialism relies only on science as a source of truth, refusing to seek truth through philosophy, despite the fact that philosophy is a perfectly acceptable method for seeking truth. Philosophy helps us to know truth about non-physical aspects of life. All other fields of psychology rely to some degree on philosophy, creating models to explain human behavior that are supported by finding logical explanations for observations rather than by science.

Finally, materialism doesn’t lead to happiness, even in this life. People come to see themselves as things to be used rather than as people to be loved. They do not find happiness in this self-concept, even if they fill their lives with pleasure. They also tend to see others as competitors or as prey. This means that materialists have a difficult time forming real, life-giving relationships.Materialists may find temporary islands of happiness, but they run a great risk of coming to see themselves and others a disposable.

These difficulties are both personal and social. Obviously, a culture ignoring key aspects of human nature and myopically focusing only on science in the search for truth will have wide-ranging social consequences. Likewise, the self-centeredness of materialism also carries social consequences. We often hear that a very small percentage of people use up a very large percentage of the world’s resources. This fact is often used to create guilt in first world countries just for having advanced technology. There is no reason to be ashamed about living in a first world country. However, if we fail to realize that the purpose of material goods is to share God’s goodness and love with others, we fall into the danger of becoming materialistic. The disproportionate use of the world’s resources, combined with a lack of sharing Creation’s goodness with others, is the result of a materialistic, me-first attitude. We should not feel guilty just because we live in a first-world country, but perhaps we need to perform a serious examination of conscience to see if we are falling into materialism.


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1 Comment

  1. Fight against Materialism – MaryTV on February 1, 2017 at 6:52 am

    […] The materialist assumption is that the tangible world is all that exists. Nothing exists if it cannot be proven true by science. The assumption is that any claim to truth without scientific evidence is nothing more than opinion. This means that what would be considered true through philosophy or faith is considered mere personal preference by a materialist, including many religious and moral truths. Of course, this view of reality in general has a great effect on a materialist’s view of human nature and human life in particular.   https://fromtheabbey.com/library/materialism/ […]

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