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#5A SCIENTIFIC MATERIALISM

I say the universe, life, humans had no Creatortheir existence is due to forces acting on matter and random chance. The universe has no purpose, or notion of good and evil, other than the meaning and value we give it.  Life involves only matter, and physical / chemical processes (physicalism)not vital spirit. Someday scientists will create it in the lab. Spirituality exists only in the mind, a product of processes in brains. I discount knowledge based on something other than observation and reason. (Note: some connect life with the process of knowing—interacting with the environment to get information  /structurally coupling with it.)

More Information About This Worldview Theme

a diamond WV Theme...

...individual <---> knowledge

the theme is paired with: #5B Vitalism to make Choice #9    in the Choices We Make cards 

this theme as presented in older version of theme structure:  version 1.0  version 2.0    version 3.0        is this theme new to version 4?--NO

click to look at the Project Worldview Cultural Literacy Encyclopedia Related Words, Beliefs, Background articles for the above choice 

 Project Worldview authored discussion, Worldview Watch related issues, songs, etc.  

Discussion from The Worldview Literacy Book Songs
Worldview Watch #37: Defining Life is Worldview Dependent...Duh!  And It's Useful!
Worldview Watch #9: And Man Made Life

Wikipedia articles related to this theme:

Materialism    Metaphysical Naturalism physicalism
rejects dualism   Scientism Origin of Life  
Atheism  rejects teleology neuroplasticity
     

 worldview internal inconsistency related: Strongly valuing this theme and any of the themes in the list below is a contradiction:

#4 Spreading Disinformation / Tactical Deception #7A   Mysticism    #7B Magic #8B   Belief in a Personal God
#9A   Religious Fundamentalism  #9B  In God's Hands: Apocalypticism #12A Polytheism, Animism, Pagan   #12B Non-rational Knowing
#14A  Salvation & Moralistic God    #14B Moral Arc of Universe/Karma/Reincarnation #15   The Group Think Imperative #25   Evil is Out There
#44A Sanctity & Dignity of Life   #201B Positive Expectations    
       

More to Explore --Worldview Theme #5A: Scientific Materialism

The Road to Reality: A Complete Guide to the Laws of the Universe by Roger Penrose (summary of 2004 book from online encyclopedia)
ENCODE: The Human Encyclopedia (Sep 5 2012 report from Nature on project to catalogue the human genome)
The Origins of Scientific Materialism (1940 article from the journal Theosophy)
The Blind Watchmaker (about this classic book by evolutionary biologist and atheist Richard Dawkins)
Blind Watchmaker Applet
The God Delusion, by Richard Dawkins (book review of 2006 book) 
The Soul Fallacy by Julian Musolino  (interview with author of book published in 2015 by Prometheus Books)
A Series of Fortunate Events –Chance and the Making of the Planet, Life, and You  by Sean B. Carroll (book review by Ivor Knight on Science  website)
Biology--What is an organism? (from The Economist June 17 2023)
Human Cell Atlas  (report from AAAS meeting posted on The Economist March 11 2023)
Astronomy Is Abuzz With This New Theory About Black Holes And Dark Energy  by Kate Nicholson (from Huffington Post Feb 16 2023)
Physicists Rewrite a Quantum Rule That Clashes With Our Universe (report from Wired and Quanta magazine Dec 18 2022)
One of the Biggest Problems in Biology Has Finally Been by Tanya Lewis (from Scientific American Oct 31 2022)
Scientists Made a Breakthrough on Life’s Origin and It Could Change Everything by Becky Ferreira (from Vice October 3 2022)
Origin of Life Theory Involving RNA–Protein Hybrid Gets New Support by Davide Castelveechi (from Nature May 18 2022)
“New Insight Into Possible Origins of Life: For the First Time Researchers Create an RNA Molecule That Replicates” (from Univ. of Tokyo Mar 18 2022)
The future of physics   (report from The Economist August 28 2021) 
Biology Briefs: Cells and How to Run Them (report from The Economist August 7 2021) 
Consciousness Is a Cultural Add-on — A Product of History Not Reducible to Neurology, Conscious Interiority Is Like Mathematics  By Brian J. McVeigh  (Mar 2 2021 article)
“Origins of Life” by Michael Marshall (article about the "chemoton model" posted on National Geographic website December 14 2020)
"Computational Biology -- The Shape of Things to Come"  (report about predicting protein shapes; from The Economist December 5 2020)
Consciousness Cannot Have Evolved By Bernardo Kastrup  (Feb 5 2020 article)
Scientists have discovered a form of natural selection that doesn't rely on DNA by Nicoletta Lanese (report from livescience.com Jan 21 2020)
“A Realist Takes on Quantum Mechanics”  by Graham Farmelo  (review of book by Lee Smolin in Nature Apr 9 2019)
"Longshots: spreading life to the galaxy" (panspermia--planting life elsewhere, report from The Economist Apr 14 2018) 

“What Astronomers Wish Everyone Knew About Dark Matter And Dark Energy” by Ethan Siegel (astrophysicist's article posted on Forbes  Apr 9 2018)

"Ghosts in the Material World" by John Gray (philosopher uses ghost stories to discuss materialism in May 3 2013 essay  published by BBC News
"Pondering a Universe Without Purpose" by Lawrence Kraus (April 1 2012 essay by physicist from The LA Times)  
"Deepak Chopra's God 2.0" by Michael Shermer (July 28, 2010, blasts quantum flapdoodle rendition of God)
Faith, Reason, God, by Cornelia Dean, NY Times (reviews of books by scientists (some believers, some atheists))
Edge (online thought-provoking website exploring questions "at the edge of the world's knowledge")
From Complexity to Life: On the Emergence of Life and Meaning ed. Niels Henrik (review of this 2003 book)
Information Theory, Evolution, and the Origin of Life, by Hubert Yockey (preview of 2005 book at Google Books)
Why Evolution Works (and Creationism Fails), by Matt Young and Paul Strode (read excerpts of 2009 book  at Google Books)
National Center for Science Education (dedicated to defending the teaching of evolution in public schools)
Life on Earth: Instructions in Three Billion (tiny) Letters or Less (2006 UCTV program)
Origins of Life: Papers Supporting Idea That Quantum Processes Were Involved (from Quantum Mind)
"New Glimpses of Life's Puzzling Origins" by Nicolas Wade (June 15, 2009 article in NY Times Science)
Darwin's Gift: to Science and Religion, by Francisco Ayala (2007 book w/  "rational, measured perspective")
Synthetic Biology: Life is a Six Letter Word (report from The Economist Dec 2 2017)
"The Interface Theory of Perception"  by Gregory Hickok (September 2015 review of theory related to how mind evolved by Donald Hoffman, etal)
"A basic ingredient of life, ribose, can form in comets, say researchers"  by Christian Schroeder (April 2016 news report from CSM)
"How Did Biology Begin? (science brief from The Economist August 8, 2015)
"Virtual Biology: Computer Worms" (report on effort to make world's first simulated organism from The Economist May 24, 2014)
"Uniter of Sperm and Egg is Found" by Erika Hayden  (article about discovery of protein critical to conception, on Scientific American April 18, 2014)
Synthetic Biology: DIY Chromosomes (article from The Economist Mar 29 2014)
"Animal Mechanics: A Bug With a Gearbox" (report from The Economist Sep 14 2013)
"Near Death Experiences are Electrical Surge in Dying Brain" by Rebecca Morelle (report from The BBC News Aug 12 2013)
"Resurrected Protein's Clue to the Origins of Life" by Simon Redfern (article from The BBC News Aug 8 2013)
"Astrobiologists Find Ancient Fossils in Fireball Fragments" (Mar 2013 report from MIT Technology Review)
NASA's Origins website (explores questions like "Where Did We Com From?, Are We Alone?")
DNA--The Double Helix (educational exploration from nobelprize.org)
Outer Space Nurseries, by Robert Cowan (Aug 2006 report that "chemistry that gave rise to life on Earth may have begun in space")
Incomplete Nature: How Mind Emerged from Matter by Terrence Deacon (more on this 2011 book from Amazon.com)
The Artificial Life Project (mission is "to promote and assist in the engineering of artificial life")
The International Society of Artificial Life (ISAL) (conferences and conference proceedings on this topic)
"And Man Made Life"  (article in The Economist May 22 2010)
"Seeing God...How the Brain Creates Out of Body Experiences and Religious Epiphanies" by Oliver Sacks (Dec 2012 article on The Atlantic website)
Out of Body Experience Recreated (report on scientists' inducing OOBE using virtual reality goggles)
"Are Spiritual Encounters All in Your Head? by Barbara Hagerty (part of five part series on NPR, May 2009) 
"Scientist Creates Life--Almost," by Alice Park (article in Time February 4 2008)
BBC News Report on Craig Venter's Progress Toward Goal of Creating Life in the Lab (June 2007 story)
Scientism: Philosophy and the Infatuation With Science, by Tom Sorell (read portions of this at Google Books)
The Scientific and Medical Network: An International Interdisciplinary Forum for People Exploring Worldviews Beyond Materialism 
The Shamans of Scientism by Michael Shermer
"Does the Universe Have a Purpose?" ( multiple perspectives from (from the John Templeton Foundation website)
"Does Science Make Belief in God Obsolete?" (from the John Templeton Foundation website)
International Society for Complexity, Information, and Design (rejects evolution, supports intelligent design) 
"Why Everyone Should Learn the Theory of Evolution" (from January 2009 Scientific American on Evolution)
Should Science Speak to Faith? (July 2007 Scientific American article provides two perspectives)
Worldwide Corruption of Scientific Materialism (Islamic perspective)
positive Atheism
Science, Religion, Politics, Law and Education (evolution and creationism by Tim Berra)
The Godless Fundamentalist, by Lakshmi Chaudhry (review of The Root of All Evil: Richard Dawkins' documentary) 
The Religion of the Blind Watchmaker (a critical look by Phillip Johnson)
The Unraveling of Scientific Materialism, by Phillip Johnson
"What is Consciousness?" (science brief report from The Economist September 12 2015
"Sizing Up Consciousness By Its Bits" by Carl Zimmer (article from Science section of NY Times Sept 20 2010)
Materialism and the Mind Body Problem, by David Rosenthal (read portions of this book at Google Books)
Life 2.0 by Lee Silver (a June 2007 article about rewriting life's genetic code from scratch)
Anti-Scientism: Which Side Are You On? (May 2007 post by Robert McHenry with commentary by others)
Questioning the Scientific Worldview
Manifesto of Scientists Who Accept the Paranormal  (product of Feb 2014 conference at Univ. of Arizona, Tucson)
Charles Tart article (has good discussion of  "Science and Scientism in the Modern World")
How Does Consciousness Happen? (October 2007 Scientific American article)
quotes about atheism

back to Theme Choices version 5.0 structure

"As you shop in "The Reality Marketplace" avoid spending your "reality cash" too early,  before you have seen everything. " 
from Coming of Age in the Global Village,  by Stephen P. Cook,  with Donella H. Meadows.

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