Idealism is more Rational than Materialism

[Chas]

thanks for the advice.
I can't show you a world that exists without material structure since you already assume a material world is what's behind our perception. but that's exactly what i'm pointing out. material is not necessary for our perception. what materialists suggest is that our minds create the world we experience from interpretations of the brain responding to stimuli. we already know this interpretation is not equivalent to the physical world as we recognize color, taste, smell, and sound as purely mental and only exist in our perception. we only experience what our minds cause us to perceive. this is undeniable. this perception does not necessarily correspond to reality. this is why we can have hallucinations. we cannot be sure what reality is beyond our perception.

We gain confidence in our perception when that perception is supported by evidence, by the result of trial and error, and by the concordance with others' interpretations.

if we cannot be sure what reality is beyond our perception, then why assume there is one?

See above. The fact that we share a common understanding of reality supports the claim that there is one. And it is not just human perception that is in accord, but animal perception as well.

we can easily postulate a world that is purely mentally constructed.

Maybe you can, but it would only exist in your mind.

we only perceive physical substances as mental constructs as shown by their presence of color, smell, taste, etc. if these things are just perceptual states, then perceptual states are all we can affirm to be real. some material behind our perceptual states is wholly unnecessary to postulate.

Again, no. The evidence of shared experience says you are almost certainly wrong.