

Ask HN atheists & agnostics: Are you strictly materialist?  - puredemo

Or do you believe there may be more going on within our day to day realities than meets the eye, or that science hasn't detected yet?
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fburnaby
I find scientific models of the world satisfying; I think our understanding of
the world as being made of material and no more is capable of explaining
everything we experience. The sketches of how this and that could be so that
are written by this and that philosopher seem more plausible to me than any
"supernatural" account. (Of course, if we discovered something "supernatural"
to exist after all, then we would immediately start to consider it "natural".)
So I say, with reasonable small amounts of doubt, that we've managed to hone
onto the 'gist' of reality via the scientific method.

However, I'm more interested in trying to be right tomorrow than I am to
defending any given position that I hold today, so I'm not _strictly_
anything. I.e.: <http://www.paulgraham.com/identity.html>

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tdoggette
The two aren't mutually exclusive. If something exists, it's part of material
reality, whether or not we've detected or explained it.

~~~
puredemo
True. The gist of the question is whether you personally believe anything
about the nature of reality that isn't flatly deductible by science.

~~~
radu_floricica
Given how little we know about reality it's not practical to answer the
question right now. Let's just say there's a lot we don't know and leave it at
that. No use to speculate as to what science cannot solve.

What I am though is a rationalist - i.e. I believe we use our minds a lot less
efficiently then we could. We're starting this century to learn a lot about
how the brain really works, and how reality really works - not at the basic
levels but as very complex systems. And with this we slowly get pieces of how
to be better humans. Ironically enough some of what we found is that
religion/spirituality is a pretty good thing.

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arthole
I am an atheist on most days. and I am not a materialist. If I have to self-
classify, I am an idealist.

for tdoggette, you are wrong. There are many things that exist that are not
part of material reality. My personal favorites are numbers. Particularly, the
number two.

I used to think that letters also were not material, but then I saw a capital
"I" on Sesame Street...

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olavk
For each answer science provides it also discovers ten new questions. The
world seems to have an infinite supply of mysteries. And history shows the
answers of science always eventually turns out to be wrong or limited, as they
are superseded by new discoveries and better theories.

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m_eiman
I'm quite sure that there is a lot going on that we haven't figured out yet.
Key word: "yet".

Isn't there some proof that it's impossible to fully explain a system (e.g.
the universe) from within?

~~~
puredemo
What sorts of things do you think might be going on that we don't understand
yet?

~~~
billswift
There is a clear inconsistency between general relativity and quantum
mechanics; reconciling them is one of the things superstring theory has been
attempting, so far with limited success.

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djcjr
It seems as foolish to declare there is no mystery at all as it does to
identify with a particular belief system.

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pkulak
Or, are there things that make up reality that I don't know about or
understand? Or that no one knows about or understands? Of course. It's a bit
odd to suggest that if people don't believe one thing, it's because they think
they know everything.

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varjag
Can agnostic be ever strictly materialist?

