Materialism

Materialism is a belief system insisting that existence is limited to what is detectable in some form by the senses—for instance matter, light, and so forth. Materialism denies or downplays the existence of anything not directly detectable by the senses. For example, materialism denies existence of love, spirituality, intelligent design, and God. Materialism overemphasizes the seen, such as material wealth, at the expense of the unseen, such as opportunity or faith.

Materialism is taught heavily in public schools, leading students to undervalue unseen aspects of life. There is a high correlation between materialism and atheism. Materialism denies that most great intellectual breakthroughs were the result of faith in the unseen.

Materialism misleads people into thinking that non-material-based addictions (e.g., gambling and pornography) are not harmful to one's health. They are often very harmful despite a lack of immediate physical harm.

Arguments for materialism commonly misuse principles such as Occam's Razor and propose that an immaterial realm is wholly superfluous to materialists' understanding of the world.

"Materialism" can also refer to an obsession with material goods.

The teachings of Karl Marx and Vladimir Lenin (see Marxism-Leninism) rest upon a particular philosophy called dialectical materialism.

Quotes

• "[T]he greatest failure of materialism is that it simply cannot explain the existence of information!" [1]