Physicalism Must Keep the Divine Foot Out of the Door

The fourth in the series on the Case Against Physicalism, this explores the primary motive behind the strong defense of this belief system. As the evolutionary biologist who discussed the motivation, it also explains why those committed to physicalism are willing to turn a blind eye to its rather obvious problems.

Image: Tim Mossholder on unsplash. More than blocked, committed physicalist will board up the door of science and philosophy and defend it with emotional intensity. In doing so, they must intentionally turn a blind eye to counter-facts and ideas. It’s necessary to keep the Divine Foot out of the door of science.

The harsh language of many defenders of physicalism and the disrespect they show to anyone who challenges their position is, we suggested earlier, a sign of insecurity in their position and an understandable growing concern about the loss of cultural dominance. Their approach I’ve suggested is similar to religious fundamentalists that draws their greatest ire. Fellow Medium writer Graham Pemberton provided this quotation by Carl Jung that captures the idea:

“Fanaticism is always a sign of repressed doubt.”

As Karen Armstrong explained, when observing a loss of a once dominant position their favored beliefs held in their culture the most conservative among any group of believers will react with increasing stridence leading in some cases to violence. This human response is the source of what Armstrong defines as fundamentalism.

It is a reaction of fear. It’s relatively easy to understand the fears of religious fundamentalists like…