Materialism And Spiritualism - Part 3

Materialism and Spiritualism in Practise

Spiritualists tell us not to place “too much” reliance on science. They tell us that most important truths are beyond the reach of science. Hence they encourage us not to believe things on the basis of evidence, experience, and practise but to take them on trust from those who pretend to know better and to have some higher source of information. Spiritualism tells us that what is most important is the inner life of soul. They tell us that we shall never solve our human problems except by some inner regeneration. Spiritualism has very deep roots in our ways of thinking, and so men often clothe their thoughts and aspirations in spiritualist dress. But the spiritualist form is always an impediment, a hindrance in the expression of truth- a source of confusion and error.

On every issue we should be followers of materialism against spiritualism. This is because we know that it is in the light of materialist theory, which studies things as they are, without spiritualist fantasies about them, that we can understand the forces of nature and society so as to be able to transform society and to master the forces of nature. And because of this too, materialism teaches us to have confidence in ourselves- in people. It teaches us that there are no mysteries beyond our understanding, that we need not accept that which is as being the will of god, that we should contemptuously reject the “authoritative” teachings of those who set up to be our masters, and that we can ourselves understand nature and society so as to be able to change them. We should hate spiritualism, because under cover of high- sounding words it preaches subjection of man to man, belittles the power of humanity, which was expressed by Maxim Gorky when he wrote:

“For me, there are no ideas beyond man; for me, man and only man is the miracle worker and future master of all forces of nature. The most beautiful things in this world are the things made by labour, made by skilled human hands, and all our ideas are born out of the process of labour.

“And if it is thought necessary to speak of sacred things, then the one sacred thing is the dissatisfaction of man with himself and his striving to be better than he is; sacred is his hatred of all the trivial rubbish which he himself has created; sacred is his desire to do away with greed, envy, crime, disease, war all enmity between men on earth; and sacred is his labour”