Why materialists are predominantly materialists

[Angrboda]

@Bunnburryist

Object permanence is the understanding that objects continue to exist even when they cannot be observed (seen, heard, touched, smelled or sensed in any way). This is a fundamental concept studied in the field of developmental psychology, the subfield of psychology that addresses the development of infants' and children's social and mental capacities. There is not yet scientific consensus on when the understanding of object permanence emerges in human development.
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In animals
Experiments in non-human primates suggest that monkeys can track the displacement of invisible targets,[14][15] that invisible displacement is represented in the prefrontal cortex,[16][17][18] and that development of the frontal cortex is linked to the acquisition of object permanence.[19] Various evidence from human infants is consistent with this.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Object_permanence

There may not be consensus on when the change occurs, but the evidence is clear that an infant goes from not knowing that an object has independent existence to a time when all objects are seen as persisting even when out of sight. This is strong evidence that the belief in independently existing external matter is not learned, so much as it is a part of normal development of the brain. My view is that just as consciousness is structured along lines of physical dimension and time, ala Kantian Idealism, it is also structured in that we perceive objects as having permanence. The simplest explanation of the experience is that things are composed of material. It's not something we learn. It's something that's programmed into us by evolution.