Why materialists are predominantly materialists

[Pat Mustard]

That was number 20.  Here's number 21. . . .

I think believers who might otherwise be somewhat receptive are often put out by atheists who present the position that materialism is the alternative to religious belief, instead of "mere" non-belief.  I'm an atheist through and through, and (for reasons you will see!  please be patient!) I don't believe our "minds" (I don't like the word "mind" - I don't really know what it means) and experiences happen as the result of processes in material brains.  It's one thing to be asked to consider one's beliefs to be wrong, but another to be told that one has to accept a conception of our nature as beings that, although not part of atheism, is so far from the usual belief of religious people as to be scary.

The number of atheist I know of who present materialism as an alternative to religious belief: 0. This includes public atheists, atheists I've ineracted with online and atheists I know personally. The whole materialism as a substitute for religion thing is a fundie slander, as they associate materialism with want for things.

People are asked to accept that they are material things because the evidence is increasingly saying that that is the case. For example neurology has pretty much shown that the brain does everything ascribed to souls. We should no more accept the validity of belief in souls than we do the validity of belief in phlogiston.