Why materialists are predominantly materialists

[bennyboy]

An apple is an apple because we call it that.  Being aware is consciousness because we call it that.  Not really sure what your contention is-- that awareness is an illusion?  Fine-- who's experiencing the illusion?  Whoever/whatever that is, it's conscious, by definition.

You're so droll.  Nothing is experiencing.  There is no who.  Try to exert yourself a little and move beyond mere word games.

I'm experiencing slight irritation right now. I get irritated, therefore I am.

You're full of shit.  Consciousness, isn't.   You claim that consciousness is.  That's a claim that requires more support than a stupid semantic argument or saying that it's self-evident.  You've never been shy that you believe in Idealism.  What is that Idealism world composed of if consciousness isn't a real thing?  And here you are trying to deny the ontology your well-known Idealism requires.  If consciousness isn't what it appears to be, then your "world of ideas" is an empty non-space.  You're simply being dishonest in pretending agnosticism here.

First of all, I don't "believe in" idealism. I'm agnostic about the nature of reality, but I consider a kind of experiential idealism a better default position than a material monism. This is because there's a 100% chance that all knowledge is known only by a subjective agent, and an unknown chance that all subjective agency is dependent on a material substrate. 100% > not sure, any day of the week.