Study Of Materialism

A Study in Materialism and it's antidote…

Giving

Often people attempt to live their lives backwards; they try to have more things, or more money, in order to do more of what they want, so they will be happier. The way it actually works is the reverse. ~Margaret Young

By:

Jon Winslow

Intro:

Just two weeks ago I was in Radio Shack looking at a pair of head phones I wanted. Though merely forty dollars, I couldn't at first bring myself to buy them. Why? Because that was money I could give to God, and allow for Him to use it for His glory. I didn't buy them. But a mere week later I did. What was this battle that was going on inside me? It was the battle between materialism, and my faith. Reasoning sent me back and forth, changing
"Put bluntly, the view is just this: Everything that actually exists is material, or physical.[i]" What does this practically mean? Materialists do not believe in a god, a spiritual realm, or the supernatural. They believe that the incorporeal world is dependent on the corporal world. For example if the body did not exist, the mind, spirit, or soul, wouldn't either. This further leads to a world where if mental awareness did not exist, then ideals such as love, or hate, or thoughts, or any other non-physical entity simply would not exist due to a lack of perception. "Esse est percipi," George Berkeley's famous dictum, "to be is to be perceived" befits materialism quite well. Materialism takes empiricism to its extreme, where it leads one to live in world where no moral absolutes exist, due to a lack of anything that would be immutable. Materialism lacks a foundation from which to build moral absolutes. As such, the natural alternative would be to go off whatever mankind, a society, or even independent individuals are currently supporting. This type of society, seeing no moral absolutes, simply invests in itself. Why? Because there is no motivation, no higher power, no real reason to help out anyone but you. Also since there is no eternal soul, there is no afterlife, since once the body is dead, the mind and soul die, there is no reason to live for anything but the here and now. As such you would pursue that which
It is one thing we cannot replace, or gain more of or manage. As such it often plays a rather large position in all our decisions. When I was considering the headphones I first turned to all the time I would spend on them. Quickly I heard the materialist, within me speak up, "just think about all the time you can spend listening to these. Whether you are working, driving, using the computer, mowing the lawn, or all the other times when I could use them." This appealed to me, because I love listening to books on tape, sermons, and music, these would do just fine for all these purposes. What went on here? I quickly bypassed God and claimed time as my own, and thought of all the ways I could bless myself through their use. I saw how it would bless me in the short today, forgetting the long tomorrow. I bought into materialisms lie, hook, line, sinker, and saw all the benefits of investing in the tangible world before me. The headphones are a prized possession of mine, which is why I use them, because I am quite proud of them. As such I want to show them off and get the most I can out of them. Materialism tells me that my latest investment gets me a little bit closer to winning in having the most "toys." But does it? People spend their whole lives striving to serve themselves, but I would challenge, do they find it? We are familiar with the phrase "eat, drink and be merry