Is Materialism Starting to Crack?

Some papers in journals offer hope that
materialist assumptions are weakening

Time to Free Will

Will has been in jail for a long time. He’s there for philosophical crimes, not actual wrongdoing. The late Darwinist at Cornell, William Provine, insisted that Darwinism means that we have no free will. Some jailers are rethinking will’s imprisonment and might influence the jailers to let him out.

A challenge to neuro-reductionism (Current Biology, 18 Dec 2023). In this book review published by Cell Press—one of the giants in scientific publishing—Peter Sterling examines thoughts expressed in Kevin J. Mitchell’s new book, Free Agents: How Evolution Gave Us Free Will. The author and reviewer are still Darwinians, but at least Sterling argues that reductionism has been bad for science.

Rates of mental disturbance and deaths from despair now rise steeply while total fertility (number of children per female) plummets below replacement levels. These problems cannot be understood from the reductionist perspective. But they can be understood and addressed from Mitchell’s perspective — that the brain runs on meaning. Existential meaning, since our species’ emergence, has derived significantly from rewarding cooperative activities, such as work, life in extended families, play, music, sports, storytelling, and sex. But as postmodern life becomes vicarious, we watch these activities instead of doing them. And as we lose these sources of meaning, despair intensifies and spreads.

Sterling argues that belief in neuro-reductionism has contributed to wrong approaches to mental disorders—treating them as chemical problems with specific biomarkers. “Perhaps beyond the reductionist question ‘what is wrong with you?’, we should be asking “what happened to you?”

Here is Sterling’s conclusion of his book review, worth a good “wow” coming from a scientific tradition steeped in materialism. After speaking of a turtle on its back trying to right itself, and being helped by other turtles, he says,

In short, neuro-reductionism cannot successfully treat anxiety, depression, suicidality, and addictions at the molecular levels because the problems lie at the higher levels that Kevin Mitchell has identified. We run on meaning, on affection, and on mutual assistance. Here I claim is the real ‘hard problem’: how to turn neuroscience from its current corporate preoccupation with drugs and devices toward helping our fellow citizens who, like that turtle, are struggling to right themselves.

It’s only a start. Any move away from determinism, whether genetic or philosophical, is a step in the right direction.

Hope That Will Gets Free

Hope brings happiness, builds grit and gives life meaning. Here’s how to cultivate it  (The Conversation, 14 Dec 2023). We’ve seen those in the Big Science and Big Media castles admit that gratitude is good for mental health; now, Tharina Guse says hope is good, too. In the gratitude case, we asked “to whom” are people to be grateful, and here we could ask “for what” are people to be hopeful?

This psycho-shaman gives her tips for how to cultivate hope, but will people buy this method of pulling oneself up by the bootstraps? Will it be like the ‘mindfulness’ fad that has been falling on hard times lately? A study at Rice University (14 Dec 2023) found that “thinking about God inspires risk-taking for believers” (that is, if they are “morally positive” risks), possibly because of “a sense of safety a belief in God provides.”

Guse admits that many have been “finding relief and comfort in religious faith and practice,” which only makes sense, given that Hope is one of the abiding virtues in I Corinthians 13:13 (faith, hope, and love). And for those trusting God, the hope of eternal life surpasses any temporary boost one might try to cope with the daily grind. To Bible believers, hope is solid, not just wishing: “Now faith is the certainty of things hoped for, a proof of things not seen” (Hebrews 11:1). Hope is a huge motivation in the New Testament (e.g. Romans 5:1-5), where it is not a bottom-up effort, but an endowment from our Maker for those who trust in Him. That kind of hope outshines self-generated hope like the sun outshines a flashlight.

Psst: Don’t Say Will Is Still in Jail

Science communicators need to stop telling everybody the universe is a meaningless void  (The Conversation, 28 Nov 2023). We mentioned this article in a previous post, but it’s noteworthy for suggesting that materialists know their views are unpopular. Secular scientists “believe” that the universe is a meaningless void, but they shouldn’t “tell” that to the public, advises Chris Ellis at the University of Sydney. His comments are rather amusing to non-materialists. He starts by saying that science tends to paint a pessimistic view of the world.

Take a few examples. An article in New Scientist claims our perception that pet dogs love us may be an illusion. Physicist Brian Greene sees humanity’s ultimate fate in the demise of the Solar System. Writer Yuval Noah Harari, in his bestselling book Sapiens, posits that life holds no inherent meaning. Philosopher David Benatar goes so far as to argue that being born is a bad thing.

Scientists themselves may not find the view of the universe presented above to be pessimistic. However, this may bring them into conflict with many things humanity values – or has evolved to value – such as meaning, purpose and free will.

The irony in that last sentence is palpable: how would Ellis know that humanity “evolved to value” free will if he has none? How does he know that his choice of science as a value is an evolutionary artifact? His whole worldview collapses into a hierarchy of illusions (see “Could Evolution Give Us Free Will?“).

The paradoxes mount, turning evolutionary scientists into hypocrites. Look at it:

This leads us to two great paradoxes science communication often tries to straddle.

• We live in a deterministic world without free will, yet we must choose to accept science and prevent climate change. And we must act now!
• The universe is destined to end in a dead, freezing void and life has no meaning. But we must prevent climate change so our planet does not become a dead, overheated void – and we can continue our meaningless lives.

Too funny. So what does Ellis suggest scientists do? Just pretend that evolution in a meaningless universe somehow bestowed humans with values like hope and free will, because otherwise science will fall out of favor with the public.

As a result of these paradoxes, those who do not align with science’s claims about the fundamental nature of the universe may not accept scientific arguments regarding climate change. If agreeing to stop using fossil fuels is linked to accepting your life has no meaning, it’s no wonder some are reluctant.

What’s worse, signing up to “science” may also mean accepting your religion is false, your spirituality is an illusion and your relationship with your dog is based on an evolutionary lie.

What else might be an “evolutionary lie,” then? Evolution itself perhaps? Ellis could never think that and stay in good graces in academia. So he advises that science communicators continue to lie with a straight face.

Instead, science communicators would do well to take a more sensitive and anthropological approach to science communication. Understanding what people value and how to reach them may actually help the advancements of science make the world a better place.

We don’t have to change what science discovers, but we perhaps do not have to tell people their life has no meaning in the opening chapter of a popular science book. As Brian Greene put it, “we have developed strategies to contend with knowledge of our impermanence”, which provide us with hope as we “gesture toward eternity”.

So keep “hoping” on your way to a heat death, you meaningless mongrels who still believe in free will! Is that what he is saying? What “gesture toward eternity” does a materialist give? The likely gestures are unmentionable in polite society.

For all the hilarious irony in his self-refuting article, Ellis reveals that he knows materialism is unpopular. And that is a reason for hope. The current materialist age will decline and disappear in due time. May the reasonable, evidence-based hope that a loving God sent his only son to deliver us from sin and offer us eternal life bring you joy this Christmas.

And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people. For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.” And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying, “Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”  (Luke 2:10-14)