THE MATERIALIST/ATHEIST PLAYS MAKE-BELIEVE

 

We judge a worldview by its correspondence with reality. If it doesn’t correspond, then it fails the test and fails to serve as a reliable roadmap for our lives and perceptions. Consequently, it will not take us where we need to go. Therefore, we ask, “Is it livable?” Here are some thoughts that I hope will demonstrate that materialism (the belief that there is nothing beyond the natural and material world) is not livable:

 

·       In a materialistic/deterministic universe, there is no room for freewill. Therefore, the materialist must make-believe that that he does have freewill to live life as if he is making freewill choices.

 

·       The materialist makes moral judgments but lacks an objective standard to make these judgments. Therefore, he plays make-believe.

 

·        The materialist wants to believe that love has meaning and purpose in his materialistic world, but if these are no more than biochemical reactions, he again must play make-believe that there is something transcendent about his feelings, even something worth dying for.

 

·       He wants to live according to his conscience, but if the conscience is no more than material reactions, why bother! He claims that we do not have to believe in God to be good. However, he doesn’t believe that the “good” is anything more than an evolving social convention.

 

·       He wants to believe in human equality and the equality of all under the law. However, the materialist is unable to make a case for these, since materialistically, there is no equality, and we are all different. Therefore, he has no choice but to play make-believe.

 

·       He wants to hold to human primacy over the mosquito and the COVID virus. However, the materialist lacks any coherent basis to value man over the mosquito. Again, he plays make-believe.

 

·       He knows that humanity must distinguish justice from injustice. However, for the materialist, these entities do not exist in his “uncaring and changing materialistic universe.” Therefore, he makes believe that they do exist.

 

·       He talks about human rights as if they objectively exist but has no basis to believe that they exist anymore than mosquito rights. Therefore, he makes-believe that they do exist.

 

·       His psychology craves for meaning and purpose, which are non-existent in a materialistic world. He might create them for himself but doesn’t fully realize that He is playing make-believe.

 

I know that this might sound harsh, but sometimes, even in love, there is a place of jolting words. The atheist/materialist lives in a fantasy world of make-believe. He has rejected God, and, in the process, he has also rejected his own humanity, truth, meaning, and human needs. He has minimalized his life at great consequence to himself and to society.

 

In view of the above, when we see that our worldview doesn’t coincide with reality, even our lives, it might be time to search for a new worldview.