Have you ever wondered whether people who don't believe in God or, at the very least, the reality of a spiritual world might actually be incapacitated in some way? Because if you aren't alive to the reality of spirit it means you have no real sense of the good or the beautiful or of glory or nobility or mystery. If you think these are just human constructs you can't be aware of them at all.
You truly think there is nothing beyond what you can see and touch, and that human beings are sacks of meat with bodies that are just machines and minds that are only like computers? If you have any real sensitivity you must be at least somewhat aware of the fact of spirit. Even if you can't quite believe in God because the religious presentations of him are outdated in many ways you should have some kind of sense of the spiritual behind the everyday. The problem of evil often brought up as a stumbling block to spiritual acceptance makes no sense. What about the far greater problem of good?
Are materialists people who simply lack imagination? Or do they just need to grow up? A bit of both, I would say. Then, of course, there are some who don't want to believe in the spiritual and we will leave their motivations for another time.
8 comments:
I agree with your conclusion. Materialists are among the most unimaginative and most immature people I know.
They really are, aren't they, and yet so many consider themselves to be sophisticated and advanced in some way. What if they are just childish and insensitive?
They think they are far more intelligent than they are. That is part of the problem, from what I have observed. Your assessment is also true.
Sue
@William - And the problem is that this situation, once entered, is self-perpetuating. The 'immaturity' of materialism is exactly what sustains it.
William,
I know what you mean emotionally. But, if we are intellectually charitable, I'm not sure if immaturity is a fair charge for many metaphysical naturalists . There a many sober and serious thinkers who are both philosophical materialists and moral realists . I personally think that those views cannot hold together logically, but that doesn't mean that such folk are immature.
What does intellectually charitable actually mean, Chris? There is truth and not truth, that's all. Materialism is not truth. I'm sure there are, by modern criteria, serious thinkers who are philosophical materialists but their intellectual seriousness doesn't alter the fact that they are spiritually immature aka undeveloped and that's a real thing.
Spiritually immature, sure, agreed. I might go so far as to say that some naturalists have, for lack of a better expression, a kind of spiritual autism .
But , rationally and morally speaking, I don't think the charge of immaturity is necessarily the case . There are many materialists who are quite sober minded in both departments, sometimes more so than many theists and pantheists.
Materialist = spiritual autist
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