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→Materialism
I think this is good '''material''' for our [[Materialism]] article. Materialists don't just sit around '''believing''' in materialism. They used their beliefs as justification. They speak, write and act. I'd like to know more about what materialists use their perspective for. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 14:39, 6 April 2007 (EDT)
I think this is good '''material''' for our [[Materialism]] article. Materialists don't just sit around '''believing''' in materialism. They used their beliefs as justification. They speak, write and act. I'd like to know more about what materialists use their perspective for. --[[User:Ed Poor|Ed Poor]] 14:39, 6 April 2007 (EDT)
:Hello, Ed. Thanks for dropping in.
:My experience with "materialists" is, I admit, limited to sitting in a classroom and getting the materialistic perspective on biology--from teachers who expressed that supreme confidence that matter was everything and matter could explain everything. But it also comes from viewing so many [[television]] shows that took a materialistic perspective, and checking up on how other shows dealt with issues of evolution. The ''Star Trek'' franchise, for example, was as materialistic as it ever got. They ended up going with Francis Crick's directed-panspermia hypothesis, and featuring a race calling themselves "The Progenitors." Check it out on Wikipedia, if you like.
:The materialist perspective justifies--or at least removes a key objection to--the use of human fetal tissue not only for stem-cell extraction but also for transplant sources. The materialist says, "A person is not a person until it behooves the state to grant him personhood." Materialist morality's standard-of-value is "the greatest good for the greatest number," and thinks nothing of sacrificing the individual.
:Even [[Objectivism|Objectivist]] morality would have a problem with pure materialism--which is why Objectivism ''is not'' a purely materialist discipline. Materialism says that all we are, are collections of chemicals. Objectivism says that we have minds, and that mind and matter are not the same.
:Materialism is very close to ''[[modernism]]'', about which we really need an article. Modernism says that, given enough research time, grant moneys, ''et cetera'', we will find the relentlessly rational answers to every problem. [[Postmodernism]] says that some answers are unobtainable, and that there is no such thing as truth. But modernism says that the ''truth'' is that there is nothing beyond the natural and material, and that what is unknown today--say about life origins--will become known tomorrow.
:I admit that I have no references. All I have are my personal impressions from having had materialist professors, in high school, college, and medical school. Maybe this will help.--[[User:TerryH|TerryH]]<sup>[[User talk:TerryH|Talk]]</sup> 15:00, 6 April 2007 (EDT)