(June 16, 2009 at 4:06 pm)dagda Wrote: My core programing tells me materialism is individualism. 'What does not benefit the hive does not benefit the bee either' as Emperor Marcus said in Meditations. I associate materialism with individualism and individualism with disaster. How can I then support materialism when I think it is against my own (and that of societies) best interests?You have evidently confused economic materialism with philosophical materialism. Philosophical materialism states that nothing exists but matter.
As EvF said though, you can be an atheist without be a materialist. Just because we don't believe in gods doesn't mean we cannot believe that something "spiritual" exists. I wouldn't take that position, but I know of a few who do. Certainly most Buddhists would probably view it that way.