Materialism is the philosophy that all that exists is what we can either physically see or physically measure. This philosophy assumes that our Universe is a closed system where matter and energy has always existed in some form or potentiality and that the present complex state of the universe has developed solely from natural laws acting on matter. By definition, God being a transcendent intelligence who created the physical universe and upholds that Creation is ruled out by initial conceptions and assumptions as well as by a lack of credible scientific evidence. Matter in some form or potentiality is an initial given in this philosophy. Natural law is either a given or arises from the natural interaction of matter in some as yet unexplained way.
The arguments made by those postulating materialism are mainly based on claims that scientific evidence supports such a philosophy more than any other alternate philosophy. The main claim is that materialism is based on reason and evidence. This is combined with the belief that either alternate philosophies are based on pre-scientific ways of thinking or at the least are based on ideas not supported as much by scientific evidence. Scientific evidence also demonstrates everything we can identify and interact with in our universe can be categorized as matter (and energy) which always follows mathematical laws and whose history shows a movement from less to more complex arrangements.
whatswrongwithatheism 