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.)
For the Materialist the ambitions for possessions, power, status and money are legitimate ends for human living. The life and work of the Lord Jesus, of the Old Testament prophets and of the apostles, is all a condemnation of Materialism. It is a lie which is used by the devil to “blind the minds of those who believe not”. (2 Cor.4:4.) For a Christian to live in a materialistic way is a denial of the Gospel by which we are saved through the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Just one George Muller, one Hudson Taylor, or Adoniram Judson, is enough to give the lie to these teachings. The lives of Christians as lived in obedience to the Lord Jesus show the world's lies to be empty, tawdry goods for sale in Vanity Fair. Even among the pagans the life of one like Socrates could show the attractions of material goods to be will o' the wisps leading to a coarsening of the intellect, to insensitivity, and to condemnation by justice and by truth.
Materialism and Morals
Even materialistic societies themselves give medals and awards for bravery, for virtue and for public service. Men cannot avoid admiration for virtue even though, in practice and in their teachings they deny such things.
Materialism comes in various packages but all have the same basic assumption that only matter exists. This too is questionable but let us see what it puts in the place of the moral values taught in the Word of God. We cannot live without morals for that is the way we have been created, in the image of God. (Gen. 1:26.) Man cannot avoid being a moral being so to try to avoid recognizing his Creator, he constructs moral systems for himself which, on closer investigation are seen to have no real substance, no rational basis.
Darwinism, in spite of the doubts of Darwin himself concerning morality, was driven by the anti-God rhetoric of Huxley and made survival of the fittest a basis for living. This has led to all sorts of evil results. Reduced to its bare bones it suggests that one sees every other being as a competitor in the race of life and the best way of dealing with competitors is to stab them in the back before they do that to you.
