A response to comments about the myths of physicalism

Comments on my post about physicalism in a discussion with a secular humanist questioned my position. Here is my response.

Dear Peter,

Thank you for responding with your thoughtful and interesting comments to my discussion with my secular humanist friend in my post on the myth of physicalism. Your response deserves more than a reply to your comment.

I’ll publish your comments in full below, but I’ll address some key points first.

You ask: So what if there is Something More, and state categorically that “it” could not be like the Abrahamic God. Then, from what follows, you make it clear that there are no gods except what we evolved beings create in our own minds.

I’ve answered the “So What” question before. If we are created out of love and intention, as I believe, then that fact changes everything. We owe our existence, then, not to some random accumulation of particles obeying laws of physics that came from who knows where, but to a Being who intended us to be here. I think life and the cosmos are of infinite value, and I am grateful for sheer existence. It is a most marvelous gift. It doesn’t appear that you share that belief in the value of existence. You say that when we die we simply decay into Mother Earth and that you find that thought…