The Rise of Materialism: The Nature of Reality & The Science of Oneness – Overcoming an Outdated Worldview

When Nature Was No Longer Believed to Be Alive

Up until the Cartesian revolution of the Seventeenth Century the general belief taught in the universities of Europe was that Nature was alive – the Earth is alive, animals and plants are alive. They all have souls bestowed upon them by the Breath of God… But the crux of the Seventeenth Century revolution was that it said: no, this is not a living world. It is a dead world, made up of unconscious machinery, not conscious organisms. In the Nineteenth Century this Cartesian dualism* devolved into full-blown materialism where matter was made the only reality, and Spirit confined to the imagination. What is not material therefore doesn’t exist… The human mind becomes nothing but the… activity of the brain. The uncomfortable consequence of this materialistic assumption is that, with matter being unconscious, we should not be conscious ourselves. It is considered an epiphenomenon, like a shadow of the brain’s processes, just an illusion. – Elva Thompson

* The word “Cartesius” is the Latin form of the name Descarte. Cartesian dualism is a term referring to Descartes’ belief in the distinction between mind and body. (source)

Materialism as a Philosophy

Materialism states that everything in the universe is matter, without any true spiritual or intellectual existence. Materialism can also refer to a doctrine that material success and progress are the highest values in life. This doctrine appears to be prevalent in western society today… Materialism as a philosophy is held by those who maintain that existence is explainable solely in material terms, with no accounting of spirit or consciousness. Individuals who hold to this belief see the universe as a huge device held together by pieces of matter functioning in subjection to naturalistic laws. Since materialism denies all concepts of Special Creation, it relies on the Theory of Evolution to explain itself, making beliefs in materialism and evolution interdependent. – All About Philosophy