“There are those who
believe in dogma and know it and those who believe in dogma and don’t know it.” -- G.K. Chesterton
“Materialism” is defined as a worldview that holds that the
material world (matter, energy, time, and space) is all that exists. Consequently materialism holds that there is
absolutely no such thing as God, Mind (or “mind”), Spirit, demons or spirits,
or binding standards of any form. Stated
succinctly, “materialism” believes in the dogma, “matter only.” Materialists are of course free to believe as they wish (as we
shall see, freedom is a concept they themselves
deny). But since this is the dogma they
wish to believe, certain logical consequences follow from that belief system.
Materialism so defined rules out the philosophical validity
of a host of themes that materialists habitually use. In my blog series that is to follow, I will
lay out in turn five ideas that materialism conceptually has no place for. This list includes the concepts of 1) truth,
2) intelligence, 3) human free-will, 4) morality, and 5) value. Now I am not naïve about the materialist
mind-set. Each item on this list I just recited
is indeed overtly rejected by the materialist community. The problem for their side, however, is that
in spite of their protests, in order to advance their agenda they invariably end
up employing these very concepts in their conversation. For example, they implicitly 1) argue their position is 2) true in order to 3) persuade people 4) with a sense of urgency for 5) the betterment
of the world.
I am not making the case that every single materialist
explicitly denies the above five ideas. Materialists,
after all, are human beings just like the rest of us (and just like the rest of
us they fail to think through and live up to our self-acknowledged standards). Consequently materialists (also made in the
image of God) are more profound beings than their philosophy allows.
Neither am I making the case here that materialism is false.
Though I believe it is, that is not today’s point. I have
in previous blogs already made the solid case that on scientific grounds materialism is false on the basis of the absolute beginning of the material universe out of nothing (see my double posting from 11-16-2012, "Massive Upheaval"). The case I am instead making today is that if it were
actually correct that materialism is true, then all conversation about matters we (including materialists) deem important, are rendered incoherent to the core.
I do not wish to give away too much at this beginning of my
series. But when, for example,
materialists argue, as they do, that since the laws of physics (matter and
energy) cannot allow free will, then humans must not have free will, they have arrived at an absurd conclusion. We ought
to reply that there must therefore be an additional reality (spirit) besides
pure physics that gives foundation for the free-will every human being inescapably exercises
daily.
Stay tuned for up-coming posts that will continue under the
theme of “truth.”
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