The Material Face of Humanism
Robert L. Waggoner[1]
Strictly speaking,
materialism is the belief that matter is all that exists. In this absolute
sense, materialism makes no distinction between matter and mind. It holds that
the mental faculty in man is but an extension of the physical. In this sense,
materialism is a part of naturalism. However, the term ‘materialism’ is
generally used in a much looser, and more practical sense. In a practical
sense, a materialist is one who acts
like matter is all there is. Most people will deny, if asked, that matter is
all there is. However, many people act in ways inconsistent with what they say
they believe.
For example, if you had
asked Moses if obedience is necessary and if he believed what God said, he
would surely have said ‘yes’. And to his credit, Moses generally acted that
way. However, on one occasion, God instructed Moses to speak to a rock and
promised him that then water would come from the rock for Israel and their
cattle. Moses was on this occasion no doubt exasperated by the constant
complaining of the Israelites. At any rate, he struck the rock twice and spoke
to the people, rather than speak to the rock as God had commanded. In so doing
Moses did not obey God. The reason that Moses did not obey is, as God himself
said, “because you did not believe me, to hallow me in the eyes of the children
of Israel . . . ” (Numbers 20:1-13).
In like manner, whether or not a person says he believes that matter is all there is, he is a materialist if, practically speaking, materialism is a way of living which places total confidence in material possessions. A materialist is one who seeks to acquire material goods because he believes that his quality of life is determined by the quantity of his material possessions. A materialist trusts in his material possessions to satisfy his needs rather than trusting in God or some other source of power. Moreover, practically speaking, a materialist is one who acts like man is only a physical, material being. By his actions, a materialist denies the existence of man’s spiritual nature.
Materialists In The Bible
The rich young ruler
(Matthew 19:16-22) who asked Jesus what he
must do to inherit eternal life was a materialist. When Jesus told him to sell
all he had, give to the poor, and then follow Jesus, the rich young ruler
refused because “he had great possessions” (Matthew 19:22). He trusted his material
possessions to satisfy his needs. His actions demonstrated that in this life he
did not believe that Jesus could satisfy his needs apart from his material
riches. He acted like he was only physical, not also spiritual.
Likewise, Jesus’ parable of
the rich fool (Luke
12:13-21) is
about a rich man who thought he could meet all his needs with material goods.
That’s why Jesus called him a fool. The rich fool acted as if he did not
realize he had a spiritual nature and spiritual needs. Jesus had prefaced his
parable with the statement that “one’s life does not consist in the abundance
of the things he possesses” (Luke 12:15).
Goals Of Materialists
From a biblical perspective,
there is nothing wrong with materials or with material possessions. However, it
is wrong to rely upon material
possessions to satisfy all the needs of life. It is wrong because God requires
faith in Him to meet the needs of life (Hebrews 11:6), which is impossible if
faith is placed in material possessions or mammon (Matthew 6:24).
If asked, many people would
declare that man has a spiritual nature. At the same time, however, they may be
directing all their goals toward the acquisition of material goods for physical
benefits only. By their actions, they indicate belief that the quality of their
lives depends upon the quantity of material goods they accumulate. In a
practical sense, matter is their god! They may claim to be believers in God,
but in reality they are practical atheists!
Materialists are goal
oriented toward acquiring material things. They look only to themselves or to
civil governments to supply the material needs and comforts of life. They are
either willfully ignorant, or neglectfully unmindful, of the spiritual needs
and blessings of life. By their actions, materialists deny the reality and
importance of spiritual things. They deny the relevancy of God to man.
Materialists do not consider that God is man’s creator, provider, sustainer,
lawgiver, savior, lord, judge and rewarder or punisher.
Materialists are goal
oriented toward fulfilling temporal human desires of the flesh. They are not so
much concerned about love, joy peace, patience, and other spiritual experiences
such as kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, etc., as
they are about creature comforts derived from wealth, physical pleasures gained
from food, drink, and sexual gratification, or self-esteem based upon personal
achievement, fame, or power.
Materialists are not goal
oriented toward the divinely declared reality of an everlasting existence in
either heaven or hell. Having made no preparations for everlasting life with
God, they are destined to everlasting torment and punishment where they will be
separated from all that is good and holy, and be confined always to that which
is evil and horrible (Matthew 25:31-46; John 5:28-29).
Nature of Materialists
Character
Materialists are interested
primarily in themselves. They are, by their very nature, selfish. The rich
young ruler (Matthew 19:16-22), the rich fool (Luke 12:13-21), the rich man who
refused scraps from his table to be given to Lazarus (Luke 16:19-31), the
priest and the Levite on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho (Luke 10:30-35),
and the elder brother (Luke 15:25-32) were all selfish. They demonstrated by
their speech and conduct that they were materialistic. Materialism supports
modern humanism by its concerns with self and temporal existence.
The opposite of materialism
is unselfishness and compassionate charity. Compassion seeks to relieve
physical and spiritual needs of others. The compassionate are commended by God
(Matthew 25:31-40; Matthew 10:42). Jesus was compassionate (Matthew 9:36). The apostles taught
compassion (Galatians
6:2).
Compassion has been a mark of Christian conduct from the earliest days of
Christianity.
Morality
Materialists have no certain
sense of morality. If matter is all there is, then a man’s success in life must
be evaluated in terms of his accumulation and use of material things. And if
matter is all there is, then the manner by which a man acquires material things
is relatively unimportant. Morals are then but a means to an end, having no
definite values within themselves. Materialists may therefore determine for
themselves whether morals have values, and if so, what they may be.
On the other hand, if matter is not all there is, if man does indeed have an everlasting soul, then success in life must be measured in terms of one’s spiritual well being, his relationship with God, and his preparation for everlasting existence apart from his physical body. And if matter is not all there is, then man may not determine for himself the manner by which he acquires and uses material things. Rather, the manner for acquiring wealth is prescribed by God. Man’s acquisitions and uses of material things must be according to God as set forth in his written word.
Causes And Consequences Of Materialism
Christians in America now
find themselves living in an extremely materialistic environment. All other
values appear to be secondary to acquiring massive amounts of money in order to
enjoy abundant physical pleasures and creature comforts. Reasons for American’s
current enchantment with materialism may be attributed to many factors – most
of which have had detrimental repercussions on Christianity and the family.
Industrialization
Historically, materialism
gained strong support from the industrialization of the western world. With the
beginning of the industrial age, men turned more intensively toward money
making pursuits, and therefore tended to give decreasingly less attention to
the spiritual welfare of their families.
Whereas fathers once worked
with their wives and children in agriculture or other family businesses, they
now began to leave their families every day for financial employment elsewhere.
As they did, their spiritual influence in their families diminished. As men
became more preoccupied with businesses, their materialistic greed produced
numerous social ills, most of which related to the deterioration of families.
One researcher has declared that “the most dominant cause for the . . . break
up of the family . . . was the fact that the men of America became almost completely preoccupied with money-making and
building a great industrial culture.”[2]
As materialistic pursuits
increased, consumer goods were produced in larger varieties and quantities.
Advertising also stimulated the desires of society to want more and more. Men
worked long hours to make enough money to fulfill the desires of their
families. Being gone from home most of the daylight hours, men left the
spiritual welfare of their families to wives and mothers. It follows that the
influence of fathers began to wane, while that of mothers became, for most
practical and spiritual purposes, the heads of their families. Fathers now
spent very little time with their children. One study of ““middle-class fathers
of one-year old infants found that they spent an average of only 20 minutes a
day with their babies. When a recording microphone was attached to each
infant’s chest, the data indicated that in terms of true, intimate interaction
between father and child the average daily time together was 38 seconds.”[3]
When the time came that men
could not by themselves earn sufficient funds for family desires, then their
wives also had to seek employment away from their children. While materialism
is not the only reason American women have joined the labor force, it is surely
the predominate one. Note the statistical increase of women in the work force
over the last one hundred years. “In 1890, less than 5 percent of all American
wives worked outside the home for wages and salaries. By 1940 this figure had
increased to 17 percent, but the most dramatic increases followed World War II.
In 1947, 20 percent, or one out of every five married women was employed in the
labor force. The proportion rose to one in four (25 percent) by 1950, one in
three (32 percent) by 1960, and one out of two (48 percent) by 1980.”[4]
Two thirds of all wives are now in the labor force.
Materialism has thus
contributed to removing men from the headship of their families. It has thrust
the leadership of families upon women, (a role God did not intend for them to
perform), and then it has burdened women with employment outside their homes
and away from their husbands and children.
Public Schools
Another cause for America’s
obsession with money is the fact that our public schools are now geared to
promote materialistic rather than spiritual values. The purpose of education is
generally declared to be that of instructing people how to make a living. In
order to be a productive, tax-paying citizen, a benefit rather than a burden to
society, people must be taught, it is said, in order that they can get jobs and
make money. To get better jobs, more education is needed, therefore young
people are encouraged to get a college education. They are often given
statistics that shows that college graduates make more money than high school
graduates.
In the name of
secularization, modern public education recognizes only the material and the
physical. By avoiding awareness of the spiritual nature of humanity, public
education implies that matter is all there is, that the ‘good life’ must be
lived here and now, that there is no life after death, and that therefore
students should enable themselves by their education to acquire all they can
while they can.
Loss Of Personal Identity
For many, a much more recent
cause for America’s enchantment with material possessions seems to be a growing
loss of identity and a diminishing sense of personal worth. Our nation has been
shifting from a Christian value system to a humanistic value system. It is also
shifting from an industrial society to an information society. Radical social
and economic changes are taking place. We live in an age of corporate
take-overs. People feel insecure in their employment. Most Americans move from
one community to another a least once every five years. People therefore feel
little sense of community stability or belonging. Families are deteriorating
and breaking apart. Divorce rates in America are the highest of any nation in
the world.
More than a third of the
couples first married in the 1970’s have now divorced. More than a third of the
children born in the 1970’s have spent part of their childhood living with a
single parent. The emotional consequences of this trend upon both adults and
children are proportionately large and suggest that in the future our society
will become increasingly unstable and insecure.
People no longer feel secure
and protected by traditional social and economic structures that once provided
security. All this produces an identity crisis that too often results in people
thinking that ‘if you do not look out for yourself, nobody else will.’ When
people can no longer identify themselves with family, community, or employment,
and when presumed relationships with God are commonly discredited by a
generally humanistic society, money then becomes for most the only way they
know of defining who they are by what they have. Thus, we live in a society
wherein many people seem unable to feel good unless they have an abundance of
material possessions.
Humanism Is Materialistic
Modern humanism is
materialistic in both the strict and in the practical sense of the term. In the
strict sense, because humanism holds that matter is all there is, it explicitly
denies the spiritual nature of man.
“Holding an organic view of life, humanists find
that the traditional duelist of mind and body must be rejected,”[5]
“Modern science discredits such historic concepts as the ‘ghost in the machine’
and the ‘separable soul.’ Rather, science affirms that the human species is an
emergence from natural evolutionary forces.
As far as we know, the total personality is a function of the biological
organism transacting in a social and cultural context. There is no credible evidence that life
survives the body.”[6] “We have
found no convincing evidence that there is a separable ‘soul’ or that it . . .
survives death.”[7]
In a practical sense,
humanism, being economically materialistic, implicitly denies the spiritual
nature and needs of man. It relies solely on material possessions to satisfy
the physical needs of life. In acquiring material goods to meet life’s needs,
however, modern humanism relies not just on the individual but also on the
state. In modern humanism, governing agencies of society are responsible to
collect economic resources throughout society in order that there might be an
“equitable distribution of the means of life.”[8]
Humanistic materialism therefore requires that civil governments be
socialistic.
Influence of Materialism Upon Professed Christians
For humanists, who believe that there is no God and therefore that there is no life beyond present existence, such materialistic thinking is understandable. Christians, however, should not be overcome by such temporal thinking. It is a sad fact that professed Christians now generally seem to be caught up in the same materialistic quests, and to the same extent, as other Americans. Have Christians forgotten where they are going? Have Christians forgotten what they should be doing? Or have most Christians never really had much conscious awareness of these things?
Christians should have a strong sense of identity with God. Christians are children of God (Romans 8:14-17). Christians belong to God (Romans 14:7-8). Christians live with the protective care of God (Psalms 55:22). Christians are a part of God’s family on earth – the church (Ephesians 3:14-15). A Christian’s sense of security relates to his personal identity with God (Ephesians 1:3-10; Ephesians 2:4-9). Christians ought not rely on money for their security (1 Timothy 6:10, 17). It is too uncertain (Proverbs 23:5). Those who rely on money make it their god! (Colossians 3:5).
Christians should understand
that this temporal life and material things are not all there is. Christians
are but aliens and strangers passing through time on the way to an eternal home
with God (1 Peter 2:11). Christians ought not therefore give themselves, like
the ungodly, to materialistic quests, but strive for spiritual service (Mark
10:24). Christians should spend much time, effort, and money in doing good
works that benefit others, and calling upon them also to obey and serve God
(Matthew 25: 31-46; Ephesians 2:10). Christians must act on the premise of
Jesus that “it is more blessed to give than receive” (Acts 20:35). Christians
must assess their personal worth and success in life, not in terms of material
possessions, but according to their standing with God, and their preparation
for eternal life. To do otherwise is humanistic, foolish, and eternally
destructive.
When professed Christians
are materialistically minded, as most now seem to be, it is impossible for their
homes to be genuinely Christian. Children imitate their parents. If Christians
are going to build better Christian homes than now exists, then Christians must
turn away from materialism. Children will come to feel secure in relying on God
whenever they see that their parents are secure in their reliance upon God.
Conclusion:
Materialism is a major enemy of Christianity because it causes people to act like there is no God. It causes Christians to act like man has no spiritual nature. Materialism relies upon physical things to satisfy the needs of life. It is temporally oriented. It produces selfishness. It denies absolute morality. It makes a god of money. It has already captured the hearts of a vast number of professing Christians.
[1]Copyright © by Robert L.
Waggoner, 1988. Revised, 2000. Permission is granted to reproduce and
distribute this material for non-commercial educational purposes whenever
unaltered and copyright and author’s name are given. All other rights reserved.
[2]Carl W. Wilson, Our Dance Has Turned To Death, [Living
Books, Tyndale House Publishers, Inc.
1979], 53, emphasis by original author.
[3]Urie Bronfenbrenner, “The
Disturbing Changes in the American Family,” Search,
Fall, 1976 [as reprinted in The Journal
Of Christian Reconstruction, IV, Winter, 1977-78], quoted by John W.
Whitehead, The Stealing Of America,
[Westchester, IL: Crossway Books, 1983], 66, emphasis by original author.
[4]Lenore J. Weitzman,
“Changing Families, Changing Laws,” Family
Advocate, [Summer,1982], 6, quoted by John W. Whitehead, The Stealing Of America, 63.
[5]Humanist Manifesto II, Third.
[6]Humanist Manifesto II, Second.
[7]A Secular Humanist Declaration, 6.
[8]Humanist Manifesto I, Fourteenth. See also Humanist Manifesto II, Tenth, Eleventh, and Fifteenth.