Materialism, Science, and Religious Values

Materialist thinking goes beyond simply being scientific; it is closely connected to scientific reductionism. The premise of materialism is that “the world exists independently of human perception,” and this assumption leads to the proposition that “truth exists in the natural world.” This closely resembles the attitude of modern science and can be described as the philosophy that underlies and justifies scientific inquiry. Science does not deal with ideas that cannot be proved or disproved through scientific methodology, such as values, the soul, or the existence of God. In this sense, materialist thinking is scientific insofar as it provides a foundation for science.

However, when scientific methodology—and, beyond that, human reason itself—is separated from religious values, materialist thinking can deteriorate into scientific reductionism, giving rise to attempts to explain every phenomenon and interaction in the world, including belief and the supernatural, through scientific principles. In other words, everything that cannot be demonstrated by science—values, meaning, moral laws, God, the resurrection of Jesus, personal testimonies of faith, and so forth—naturally becomes entirely meaningless. This is an extremely destructive way of thinking. If one denies the existence of God on the basis of materialist thinking, the absolute morality that people commonly believe exists in the world is denied altogether. If God does not exist and the universe really did come into being by chance through the Big Bang, then the grounds both for refraining from murder and for committing it disappear. Philosophical positions claiming that morality arises from reason or that justice consists in the greatest happiness of the greatest number necessarily involve leaps in reasoning and therefore fail to answer the question of fundamental moral obligation. We must not commit murder, however, simply because God, the lawgiver of the universe, has commanded us not to do so.

Thus, although materialist thinking is the philosophy underlying the scientific methodology that laid the foundations of modern society, the moment it becomes detached from religious values, it loses its rational balance and veers toward reductionism. This imbalance leads to the highly destructive consequence of losing absolute morality. In other words, if every phenomenon is interpreted solely in material terms, there is no fundamental difference in value between smashing a stone and smashing a person's head. Of course, religion does not guarantee morality. In the past, the Crusaders committed unjust killings and looting in numerous villages, and today many pastors of megachurches are implicated in sexual scandals. Nevertheless, religion's historical wrongdoings cannot negate the need for religious values themselves.

To deny religious values is equivalent to rejecting the premises of idealism and accepting those of materialism. At this point, the materialist error of regarding matter as the entirety of the world takes a sociologically expanded form in Marx's historical materialism. Historical materialism declares that values, meanings, and the like are merely parts of a superstructure derived from economic or social conditions and necessarily subordinate to them. By denying religious values, it can produce highly destructive consequences. One might offer as counterevidence the fact that modern societies have not abolished the crime of murder or experienced an explosion in murder rates. Yet an effective rebuttal would be the fact that tens of millions of people were actually massacred in the Soviet Union and China in the course of implementing communist ideologies founded on (historical) materialism. Of course, Marx did not advocate massacres themselves, but this materialist denial of values provided the foundation on which Red Guards could spear their own teachers to death and destroy cultural heritage without guilt. Acts that would never have been committed had the value of cultural heritage and education not been denied were carried out without remorse in the name of materialism.

In fact, the materialism underlying historical materialism is built upon axioms, or a priori beliefs, entirely different from those of idealism. Its premise that matter always precedes ideas therefore cannot be conclusively proved or disproved. To explain this in greater depth, idealism and materialism make opposing claims about which comes first, “perception” or “matter,” but this is an axiom that cannot be absolutely verified or refuted. In approaching this question, however, we may find an answer in Kant's Copernican revolution: “Matter exists outside our perception, but it is ultimately our reason that perceives that matter.” This is similar to the principle that, although we cannot give a clear answer to “Which came first, the chicken or the egg?”, an answer begins to emerge if we regard the two not as separate events bound by a causal relationship but as mutually dependent conditions, each presupposing the other.

In other words, if we move beyond the question of whether matter or perception comes first, we may find a compromise between materialism and idealism. Historical materialism, however, displays an extreme exclusivity that rejects even this possibility. Therefore, to reiterate, the claim that changes in the superstructure throughout human history must always result from changes in the economic base can neither be rigorously proved nor disproved. Nevertheless, when we consider the nature of materialism, historical materialism is clearly a philosophy that should be avoided, given its considerable potential to destroy absolute morality and cause social disorder.

In conclusion, materialist thinking is a foundation of science and a cornerstone of modern society. Yet when religious values are excluded from this way of thinking and it is taken to an extreme, the result is the profoundly destructive loss of absolute morality. Marx's historical materialism, born of an unquestioning faith in materialism, and the massacres that took place in the Soviet Union and China are clear evidence of this.