Matter and materialism - Lent 2022: Day 23

There are people who have a strong belief in God, whether they belong to a religious group or not. And then there are people who are certain that there is no God, and that the Universe is but a random event, intrinsically without deeper meaning or purpose.

Then there are good people and bad people, and a great many indifferent people - neither wrongdoers nor do-gooders - just somewhere in between, getting on with their lives. In my experience, belief in God makes little difference to people's moral actions (the amount of evil carried out in God's name is proof of this conjecture). I know good atheists and churchgoers whom I would trust. And good churchgoers and atheists whom I wouldn't trust.

But if you don't believe in a metaphysical imperative, a prime cause, a reason or destination - then what's left? For the morally inclined atheist, there's humanism. Selflessly helping others, donating time or money to good causes - not for the sake of the ego, but doing good for its own sake - in the full knowledge that life's boundaries are finite, death is final and the Universe is material.

Ideologies have crept in to take the place of theologies. Our increasingly fragmented societies are being splintered along culture-war lines; left-wing and right-wing slog it out on the social media, hidebound by their doctrines but generally blind to the metaphysical.

Without a deeper purpose, without a quest, there's just a journey without a destination. And on such a journey - what is there to talk about, other than changing the car for a posher one, what to we'd like to buy on our next visit to the shopping mall. Or - if deeper debate is required - some mud-slinging of the culture-wars variety. [It's interesting to note that the Thirty Years War occurred after the printing revolution had made accessible books to the literate population of Europe; it was a war of religious ideas and it reduced Europe's population by 20%.]

Reductionist materialism posits that matter is the fundamental substance in nature, and that everything can be reduced to matter. Consciousness is merely the by-product of material processes - the biochemistry of the brain and nervous system, without which they cannot exist. This belief system stands in opposition to my personally held view that consciousness is fundamental, and without it, matter could not be experienced.

My belief in the primacy of subjective conscious experience over the biological ego makes me less of a materialist in the common usage of the word - I am not chasing physical goods, not engaged in a dash for acquisition of wealth. Asceticism is a therefore an attribute of consciousness. Once a basic level of comfort has been reached - freedom from cold, hunger, illness, war and discomfort - one's efforts should be turned inward - but this can only happen if one believes that there's something more to the Cosmos than mere matter.

This time last year:
One life is not enough

This time two years ago:
The Secret and the Hidden

This time four years ago:
Afterlife - a myriad possibilities, after the Magic has returned

This time five years ago:
Warsaw photo catch-up (Rotunda going down)

This time six years ago:
Conscious of being conscious

This time seven years ago:
New road and retail

This time nine years ago:
Warsaw's Northern Bridge - its name and local democracy

This time 11 years ago:
What's Polish for 'commuter'?

This time 12 years ago:
Four weeks into Lent