Is Materialism Dying?

No, probably not.  But here are two perspectives (neither of which is particularly new) as to why a purely physical cosmology is worth questioning deeply.

Ethical Motivation: where does our sense of right and wrong come from?  How does a purely materialist view of human origins account for self-transcendence?  Why, for instance, do we tear-up at stories of a young Marine jumping on a grenade to save the lives of his buddies at the cost of his own?  Why is greed bad but charity laudable?  Why do we value courage over cowardice, particularly in circumstances when retreat offers a much surer path to survival and therefore, the ability to pass on our DNA?

Here’s a short video of Leah Lobresco—a 2011 Yale grad and erstwhile atheist blogger—describing how she came to faith through an awareness of her innate ethical yearnings.  For those of you who were “razed” Catholic, this might just rekindle some hope.

Quantum Mechanics:  I read The Hidden Face of God by Gerald Schroeder last winter.  It’s mind blowing stuff, really—made me wish I’d never given up on science in school.  Schroder puts the sub-atomic world in a helpful scale to begin mulling the question of matter: if we were able to expand the nucleus of an atom to a sphere 4 inches in diameter, the electrons would be orbiting (at ~ ¼ the speed of light) about 4 miles out.  That means that something like 99.999% of the physical universe isn’t actually matter, but the space between matter (or energy).  You can’t jam your finger through a bunch of iron atoms in their solid state, but it’s not because there's this dense material preventing you from doing so.  It’s because of that odd little, but really strong force "tethering" the nucleus to the electrons.  

Moreover, what can we say about the strong and weak nuclear forces,electro-magnetic force, and the force of gravity; these 4 rules, these inviolable principles of nature, which never stop working?  At a minimum, I think we can say they, not the apparent material around us, form the basis of physical reality.

Keith Ward, whom I had the pleasure of hearing speak at General Theological Seminary during the spring of ’94, takes this sub-atomic discussion further.  You can view it here.  It’s pretty long, but well worth it.  

Here are the haunting questions from Ward’s lecture: what if all that sub-atomic junk (e.g., protons, neutrons, electrons) wasn’t actually matter itself?  What if the whole of our experience is the perception of inviolable rules—of wisdom, as Schroeder puts it—in action?  What does that mean for consciousness?

Neither of these are proofs for God’s existence, mind you—I gave up on that quest years ago.  They do suggest that what we commonly perceive to be the bedrock of reality may not actually be that.  

I’d also love to see somebody tackle the link between the fundamental laws of physics and consciousness / innate, selfless ethical yearnings, if that’s possible.

In the end, I suppose what I feel most from these two trains of thought is a new appreciation for God’s immanence. And that’s pretty cool, in a contemplative sort of way.