MATERIALISM AND ATHEISM: REDUCTIONISMS
The schools of
thought of materialism and atheism have something in common: they both affirm
the non-existence of God. In materialism, the only thing that can be said to
exist is matter. Therefore, God, who is spirit, does not exist. Atheism,
likewise, also understands that there is no God and that mankind does not need
Him to live and be happy. Of course, from a philosophical point of view, such
approaches are nothing but scientific reductionism. They are analyses of
reality that do not consider all the variants of the question and are structured
on considerations that they cannot prove.
Materialism sees
only matter in the world. Even human thought and feelings, for materialism, are
only manifestations of singular states of matter. In this context, biological
life itself comes from inert matter. The "self" and the
"consciousness" of the human being are just old ideas that need to be
better described. There is an effort by materialists to deconstruct this
language in order to introduce a new one consistent with their theories. But
materialism does not explain the origin of matter and what set in motion its
dynamic of transformations and movement in the world.
Atheism, on the
other hand, understands that morals and ethics dissociated from religion are
possible. Yes, a morality that comes from reason is possible. If we adopt, for
example, human life as the supreme value, it is possible to arrive at an
excellent morality without considering God. This, however, is not proof that
God does not exist. Plato and Aristotle, for example, concluded, by reason, the
necessity of god to explain the world. Note, however, that they arrived only at
the idea of god and not at the true God and Creator, for this knowledge is
beyond human thought. Knowledge of God is only possible to man if it is revealed
to him.
The
fact is that both materialism and atheism feed on science for their conceptual
development. However, Karl Popper, considered one of the greatest philosophers
of science of the 20th century, says that
"there
are excellent reasons for saying that what we have in science is to describe
and (as far as possible) explain reality. We do this with the help of
conjectural theories; that is, theories that we hope are true (or close to the
truth), but which we cannot firm as certain [...]" (POPPER apud ZILLES,
2016, p. 209).
Scientific
knowledge does not constitute absolute knowledge, that is, truth. The science
of today will not be the science of tomorrow. For more than a thousand years
Aristotelian science reigned unchallenged until it began to be questioned in
the early Modern Age. A new physics came with Galileo Galilei, then came
Newtonian physics, then Einstein's, and now quantum physics. The truth today
will not be the same tomorrow. For more than a thousand years science claimed
that the Sun revolved around the Earth until Copernicus, a religious man who
believed in God, proved that it was the Earth that revolved around the Sun.
Thus, scientific
knowledge does not constitute the truth, but only an approximation of the
truth. In this regard, the important philosopher of science Thomas S. Kuhn
(2018, p.91) states
...we rarely find
areas in which a scientific theory can be directly compared with nature,
especially if it is expressed in a predominantly mathematical form. So far no
more than three such areas are accessible to Einstein's General Theory of
Relativity. Moreover, even in those areas where application is possible, it
often requires theoretical and instrumental approximations that severely limit
the agreement to be expected.
Although materialism
does not see God, but only matter, by a question of method, it simply cannot
prove that there is no spiritual reality in the physical world. Likewise,
atheism cannot prove that God does not exist. It is not possible to prepare a
slide of the "substance of God" (Augustine, 2011, p.144) to be
analyzed under the microscope. Even so, materialism and atheism declare that
God does not exist and build a whole conceptual framework considering this
statement. Just stating, however, is not enough. It is necessary to prove it.
In this way, materialism and atheism are just discourse, and those who follow
them do so out of an exercise of faith.
Yes, that's right. The absence of evidence reduces materialism and atheism to mere beliefs. But their conceptual and theoretical frameworks are sophisticated, and this helps to attract many adherents. Basically, however, it all boils down to faith that things are as these currents of thought claim. It is an easier faith to adhere to than the Christian faith, because it is based on what one sees. The Christian faith, on the other hand, is based on the absurd to human eyes, on what is impossible to human reason. For "For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God... God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise... God chose the lowly things of this world and the despised things—and the things that are not—to nullify the things that are" (1 Corinthians 1:18,27,28). This is why many prefer to believe in materialism and atheism. It is as the Apostle Paul said: faith in God is not for everyone (2 Thessalonians 3:2).
Antônio Maia – Ph B. M.Div.
Copyrights reserved
AGOSTINHO, Santo. Confissões.
Petrópoles - RJ: Ed Vozes, 2011.
KUHN, Thomas S. A Estrutura das
Revoluções Científicas. São Paulo: Ed Perspectiva, 2018.
ZILLES,
Urbano. Panorama das Filosofias do Século XX. São Paulo: Paulus, 2016.
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