You Tube Theology

Is all reality nothing but a collection of atoms? Materialism can be defined as the worldview that nothing exists but what is material or physical. As Julian Baggini explains in his book Atheism: A Very Short Introduction, “There is one kind of stuff in the universe and it is physical, out of this stuff comes minds, beauty, emotions, moral values—in short the full gamut of phenomena that gives richness to human life.” If materialism is true, there is no God, no soul, and no afterlife.

The chief argument for materialism is the success of science. Science proceeds by adopting materialism, and science clearly shows us truths about reality. Given the spectacular success of science in curing diseases and providing technological advances, it is unscientific and irrational not to accept materialism.

This argument fails to distinguish between methodological materialism and ontological materialism. Methodological materialism is doing scientific experiments by focusing simply on what is material, what can be quantified and measured. Ontological materialism is believing that only matter exists. Materialism as a practice of science is distinct from materialism as a philosophy of reality.

Many successful scientists (Copernicus, Newton, Kepler, Mendel, Lemaître, Einstein, Collins, Huberman) believe that God exists. So they accept methodological materialism in doing science but reject the philosophy of materialism. So, the argument from the success of science fails, since many scientists do science successfully without the materialist worldview.

#God #Christianity #Catholic #faith #reason #Aquinas #CS Lewis #Jordan Peterson