The Myth of Materialism
It's time to stop slaying this particular straw man. We have bigger problems.
by Rod D. Martin
June 5, 2011
There is no such thing as materialism; or at least, it's not what you think.
Oh, I don’t mean there’s no such thing as philosophical materialism, the idea that there is no supernatural and we’re all just matter in motion, random atoms bumping off one another. Feuerbach’s materialism is alive and well, foundational to socialist thought and practice from Mao Tse-Tung to Maxine Waters, and to general atheism everywhere. Nor do I mean that man never makes an idol, or worships the creature rather than the Creator. Of course he does.
But there’s no such thing as the materialism we speak of in the vernacular, that very pernicious “ism” that seems to infest so many Baptist books and Bible studies. Despite too many sermons to the contrary, no one has ever made an idol of their big-screen TV, or their bass boat, or their favorite football team.
No one worships these things. No one worships having these things.
It may seem a pedantic distinction, but it’s actually quite …