In
this article, we are going to examine the philosophy of materialism.
There are two types of materialism that people usually think
of. One is the obsessive
love of material object and greed of money.
The other is the philosophical school of thinking in which
the creed is stated below:
MATERIALISM:
"Everything that is, is material."
In
other words, materialists believe that the only thing that have
existence are materials in which we can physically see or touch.
Things such as God, soul and mind does not exist according
to materialism since they are not physical in nature.
The philosophy of Materialism, sadly, has been commonly taught
in the scientific community.
It is an erroneous philosophy that should be rejected.
We shall evaluate this second form of Materialism.
Evaluating
Materialism
-
Statement:
"Everything that is, is material."
Reasoning:
Materialists believe
that whatever we can sense with our five senses must indeed
exist. They
then take a leap and say, whatever we can't sense physically
does not exist.
Examined:
Could love, the mind, language, thought and reasoning,
in which all of them are
non-material in nature, really not exist?
Objection:
Using the exact criteria of materialism to examine itself,
we see that by this self test, the philosophical thought of Materialism self destructs
since it's reasoning
and thought cannot be allowed to exist in the first place!
Objection:
If the mind and thought is not materialistic, and by
Materialism's philosophy it does not exist, then how did
the philosophy of Materialism come about in the first place?
Problem#1:This
creed of Materialism can not explain why man has emotions.
Problem#2:It
does not also explain why people think, recall memories
and have reasoning.
Problem#3:Materialism
would make man similar to rocks, toilet paper and bubble
gum since man does not have a soul
Problem#4:
If man does not have a soul, is missing one thumb, is
short of two legs, has lost an arm, or is absent an elbow,
the question is, "is he lesser or no longer a human
being?"
-
Statement:
"Thinking is just only a fluid function of the brain."
or "Thought is only an electronic process in the brain."
Reasoning:
Since thinking and thought can not be denied, Materialists
try to explain why these things exist.
They do so by giving an alternative story of how
thinking and thought is actually
some form of a chemical process or other material
function.
Examined:
Is there proof of man's "fluid secretion"
and the such? The
burden of proof would be on the materialists to prove such
a thing exists.
Problem#1:If
the thinking process is just only a mind secretion of fluid,
then why would the Materialists
even try to mock or belittle the Christian position that
there is a soul and a God in the first place?
After all, by this Materialist's statement, both
viewpoint are valid since both views were sparked by some
physical elements that we have no control over.
Problem#2:
From problem#1, we have another problem.
In reality, both viewpoints are not really valid
because they contradict.
But since by Materialist forced position, the view
points have to be valid, even though they contradict, this
gives Materialism a problem of being an illogical belief
system.
Added
info: The
book, "Man on his nature" by the father of modern
brain research, Sir Charles
Sherrington (originally a materialist) shows some
reason why he finally had to reject the idea that man has
no soul, etc., that materialism embraces.
Canada's best neurosurgeon, W. Penfield's book, "The
mystery of the Mind" documents more reasons why he
embraces the concept of the soul too.
Added
info: One
account of a mind outside the physical realm was when a
patient had brain surgery
as recorded in the book mentioned above.
The surgeon sent a pulse through a part of the patient's
brain and his right hand moved.
The surgeon then tells the conscious patient, "You
moved your arm".
In which the patient replied, that it wasn't him
but the doctor. This
shocked the surgeon.
Obviously, the brain and the mind are distinct.
If the brain was the mind, then it would have been
the patient consciously moving his hand and not the doctor! The doctor repeated the experiment again, this time asking
the patient to stop his hand movement.
The patient then grabbed his hand with the other
arm!
-
Statement:
"Since we cannot know anything about non-material objects,
therefore they do not exist."
Reasoning:
Due to the fact that that certain things such as soul
and mind can not be empirically or materialistically tested
(the scientific method), materialists assume that they can't
know about the non-material
world and objects to it's existence because of it.
Examined:
To make a statement like that and deny the existence
of non-material objects is
actually to know too much, an error of the materialists.
Added
info:
The only way to know more about the non-material, is from
the creator of the non-material himself.
He gave us his Word of truth, namely the Bible.
From the Bible, we see that there is indeed a non-material
world that exist.
It is no wonder that scripture says, "For the invisible things of
him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood
by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead;
so that they are without excuse" Romans 1:20 (KJV)
If
you are a philosophical materialist reading this, you have two choices:
Come to the truth of Jesus Christ, or perish trying to grasp unto
an inexcusable lie.
--Jimmy
Li
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