Materialism

Some problems of definition:

Pain may have a direct physical cause or an indirect physical cause, or it may be emotional or psychological. Something eaten may cause a stomach ache, so may fear of bullying cause a child to feel one. Or it might be manufactured out of the child’s imagination to avoid going to school. Whichever of these could be said to be “real” is something of a problem since phobias can also be very “real” things to the person who suffers them. The more one tries to define something like this, the more difficult it becomes. Sometimes it becomes like trying to pick up water which quickly flows away between our fingers.

Materialism is rather like this. The physical world, which seems, at first glance, to be so real, tends to become very fuzzy round the edges, and then, on closer investigation, tends to disappear between the fingers of one’s mind.

Hobbes and the theory of Materialism

Pleasure and pain are real enough but they are only material sensations. It was these upon which Hobbes the seventeenth century English philosopher based his theory of human society. People, he taught, try to avoid pain and seek after pleasure. The first he called evil and the second good. With everyone seeking their own pleasure and avoiding pain or discomfort, he saw there were likely to be endless conflicts between a man and his neighbours. “A war of all against each” and “each against all” seemed inevitably to be the result with life becoming, “nasty, poor, brutish and short”. His solution was a powerful monarchy which was more like the rule of Cromwell and the Major Generals.

To argue that Materialism leads to some form of despotism may take longer than this article but that it tends this way should be apparent to every rational Christian. This is not to say that other ideas may lead to a form of tyranny but I would strongly argue that Biblical Christianity is one of the best bases for democracy and that an absence of such a system of thought may soon lead to anarchy then to tyranny.

The Bible rejects Materialism

The Bible teaches, “let each esteem other better than themselves”. (Phil. 2:3.) This is clearly at odds with Materialism whether Hobbesian or any of its later versions which claim a pseudo-scientific basis for their theories of society and of government. The Bible sees a corrupt society as being composed of people who are, “lovers of pleasure more than lovers of God”. (2Tim. 3:4.) Indeed living for pleasure is condemned by the Bible. (1Tim. 5:6, ) Our fallen nature is not able to discern what true pleasure really is and so, in the pursuit of perceived pleasure, we can become corrupt. (Jas. 5:5.)