Materialism and Scientism: A Religion of Despair?

When I was a young student at Harvard, I embraced the religion of the avant-garde: a rejection of God and the adulation of human accomplishments, particularly of science. Friedrich Nietzsche had declared a century earlier that “God is dead”, but it wasn’t until the 20th Century that so many educated people flocked to this new philosophy.

Some call this Atheism. Others call it Materialism, since its believers deny any reality beyond the material. But I like the term “Scientism” since it most accurately describes the new religion: the dogmatic worship of Science.

My university days were the most lonely and despairing time of my life, but I didn’t realize the cause of my malaise. Fortunately, in time I saw the limits of non-faith and started a search for something positive to believe. To my surprise, I gradually rediscovered the sublime beauty of Christian faith after trying several alternatives.

I believe that the most serious challenge to traditional faith is not the contending denominations within Christianity. Nor is it even the differences we have with other faiths. Rather, it is the complete negation of soul, of spirit, and of any Higher Intelligence.

Let me quote from one of the early advocates of Scientism, Bertrand Russell:

“That man is the product of causes which had no provision of the end they were achieving;
that his origin, his growth, his hopes and fears, his loves and his beliefs, are but the outcome of accidental collocations of atoms;
that no fire, no heroism, no intensity of thought or feeling, can preserve an individual life beyond the grave;
that all of the labours of the ages, all the devotion, all the inspiration, all the noonday brightness of human genius, are destined to extinction in the vast death of the solar system;
and the whole temple of Man’s achievement must inevitably be buried beneath the debris of a universe in ruins—all these things, if not quite beyond dispute, are yet so nearly certain, that no philosophy that rejects them can hope to stand.
Only within the scaffolding of these new truths, only on the firm foundation of unyielding despair, can the soul’s habitation henceforth be safely built.”

I am indebted to Charles Tart who in his recent book The End of Materialism described this new belief system so clearly. My religious views are different from Charles, but I appreciate his observations on spirituality and how it can be reconciled with science.

I have high respect for science and for scientists. But like Einstein, I see science as the handiwork of a great Higher Intelligence, who created the endless galaxies, as well as the subatomic realm.

The central pillar of my belief is this great God who has communicated with humans throughout all ages. I am not distressed by the seeming disparity of religious beliefs. When you consider how minuscule is our intelligence compared to that vast INTELLIGENCE of our Creator, how could any of us ever begin to comprehend or to explain His marvellous nature fully? How could we begin to explain Heaven, His Celestial Dwelling beyond matter and time?

Fortunately, we have no need to fully understand these wondrous matters. We need only enough wisdom to live our lives. And we need charity, sympathy and tolerance for those who see things differently from us. We can never persuade anyone by arguing, although civilized conversation is helpful.

Regrettably, our public schools and universities have outlawed all expressions of faith except for the beliefs of Scientism. That is a tragedy. However, people of faith have partly brought this upon ourselves through our own religious dogmatism. We deify our own moral understanding which we mistake for God’s law. We reject scientific observations if they seem to conflict with our beliefs, rather than pondering them carefully.

For instance, I believe we have lost credibility by our total opposition to evolutionary theory. Most scientists speculate that the universe began in one instant in time by a cosmic explosion—the “Big Bang” theory. So why not hold on to the more defensible belief that only God could have brought about such an amazing creation of the universe in one second? Whether God created Man in one day or He is still continuing to create life matters little, so long as He is the Creator. The details of earliest human history are lost in fog. Why not acknowledge that the ways of God are so far beyond us, that we don’t always know his methods. Evolutionary theory could well be wrong in various respects, but likely so are some of our own concepts about God and how he works.

I believe in the essentials of the Christian faith of my ancestors. Not because they were so wise—like us, they could only see “as through a glass darkly”. But God has provided enough light and inspiration to humanity in every culture and in each century so that we could know Him. The changes of belief over time and across cultures are not fundamental. I believe God is leading us gently to a better understanding.

The problem with Scientism is that with God dead, and the universe governed by random chance, humanity has no protection and no assurance for the future. Furthermore, there is no answer to death, despite frantic research to extend our lives. It is not surprising that this belief system brings loneliness and despair.

Humanity stands at a crossroad. Those who share a traditional faith in God must learn to get along, despite our many differences. We also need to engage lovingly and thoughtfully with those who have lost faith in anything greater than science. That view brings the despair evident in Russell’s comments. Our faith brings a strong hope:

So long as God is in His Heaven, all will be right with the world!