Both materialism and spiritualism have played major role in human societies. Through the process of evolution men have benefited from both the ideologies to pave their way to today’s civilization. A discussion of both the schools of thought would give a very useful insight to readers and can make them choose them as their part of lives so as to make their lives more blissful.
The materialists comprehend the universe, the phenomena in the universe, the human beings and their lives by keeping matter as the central point. They base their views on the teachings of the modern branches of knowledge like physics, chemistry and biology that say that everything in this universe is matter or energy. According to modern theories of physics even energy is a form of matter which is explained in Einstein’s theory of converting matter into energy. The changes that occur in matter are due to the internal contractions of matter. The philosophy which tries to understand the changes in matter is known as materialism which is the basis of all modern branches of knowledge. Spiritualism, in their opinion is just “a blind faith on superstitious existence of fairy and miracles” and “interpretation of changes in the shape and form of the universe, due to some metaphysical forces.” For example the natural calamities that take place around the world are the consequences of the bad actions that are carried out by people residing those places. These beliefs are unscientific and no doubt spiritualists are those people who still believe that a disease is caused when some kind of evil spirit enters in a body and as a remedy the patient is beaten and tortured so that this spirit should escape. They are the people who still trust on talisman and believe that any natural disaster can be avoided through them.
The materialist believe that we are living in the age of cause and effects and we should strive to understand the problems in the light of the principles of the theory of cause and effect; otherwise we will fail to understand the problems and without a proper understanding of the problem, a suitable solution cannot be found. If the principles of the spiritualists are followed we can understand neither the socio-economic and political problems nor the complex nature of the universe because according to them everything takes place through metaphysical forces.
They further add that we are living in the age of science and technology and one of the most dominating features of science is the scientific outlook. Scientific outlook lends a hand to human race in understanding the general phenomena which influence them and assist them in finding some reliable solutions which may occur as the outcome of these phenomena. In other words scientific outlook encourages human beings in applying the theory of cause and effect in the interpretation of even the minutest phenomenon happening in their lives. Thus, it provides insight in the very essence of the problem and makes its logical solution possible. On the other hand spiritualism distracts human concentration and devotion from the core problem and makes him dance over the joy which is nothing except a misconception. The solutions derived by the spiritualists are just fantasies. They think they know about an issue but in real sense they know nothing.
The propagators of materialism suggest that people must have a materialistic and scientific look over the problems that have thrown their bliss in the wilderness of sorrow and oblivion; otherwise, they should be ready to listen the social and economic problems laughing on their miserable condition sarcastically.
On the other hand the propagators of the spiritualism believe that materialism does not have the true spirit of an ideology to be followed and propagated. They suggest that as it is generally believed that a divine spirit is the creator of everything in this universe, he his shadow was put in the form of spirit in man when the man came into existence, and man has to return to his lord back and he is commanded to follow the command of his lord on this earth; therefore, spiritualism seems to be more authentic ideology and bears more resemblance to the objective of life.
The spiritualists argue that it is an undeniable fact that all the revealed schools of thought somehow teach the same philosophy that every particle of the universe has a creator. All the revealed thoughts ask man to follow the divine teachings of the lord of the existence and it is important to see what the revealed teachings say. All the revealed teachings, in addition to the discussion of spirits and metaphysical characters, also emphasize some very useful social values and human characteristics that have nothing to do with materialism and can never be felt by dead matter. Those golden rules of social behavior and human attitude greatly enhance the order, love and warmth of human societies and help them grow as true human beings on the face of earth.
They add that the universal teaching of justice which was set by the religions of the world is taken by granted by the sociologists and the political scientists of the modern age as the basis of their sociological and political lives, but they have failed to implement the system of social justice enunciated by the religion in every walk of their lives because they have tinged it with their materialistic outlook in other spheres of life, that is why on one hand they hanker after establishing a comprehensive bliss but on the other they are the victims of numerous contradictions – thousands of mother-less and father-less children are seen in the so-called modern countries of the world and they are all deprived of all the affection of their parents, though they are provided with most of the materialistic benefits. All these types of social contradictions are without any remedy in the modern societies, because the very rudimentary outlook of their social thoughts is based on false conclusion which is materialism. They need to take advantage of the pure teachings of spiritualism so as to make their lives full of bliss and contentment.
Human beings need to understand that they can benefit from both the materialism and spiritualism. Leaving any of them behind and moving ahead would never support human beings in living a balanced life in today’s modern world.