# The Metaphysics of Materialism **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [October 19, 2001, 10:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-metaphysics-of-materialism/88392 "2001-10-19T10:55:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 1\ **Showing post:** 181
**Author:** ![Liberal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/848f3c/32.png) [@Liberal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Liberal)\ **Post date:** [November 2, 2001, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-metaphysics-of-materialism/88392/181 "2001-11-02T14:58:13Z")
Lordy. Maybe there’s just a chasm between us so profound that neither of us can understand the other. You say you don’t know where I’m coming from or where I’m going. Rest assured, the bewilderment is mutual. I’m still stuck trying to wrap my brain around an existence that is ontologically meaningless yet includes observers whose observations _are_ meaningful — but not material! The brain itself is material, but it produces ghosts (concepts) that aren’t. Material reality is manifest subjectively. And yet, objectively, too. These observers are part of the existence, one presumes, and yet they are like the wind, neither here nor there, incorporeal and yet material. Predications without agency. It is all mystical beyond anything I’ve ever seen in theology. --- _[View the full topic](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-metaphysics-of-materialism/88392)._