So yes - your preference is for things strictly material. That is - I agree - a good enough definition of a materialist.
If you have a hand screwdriver and a powered screwdriver, which is generally preferable to use when screwing screws into things that don't have screwholes already? The powered one, of course, because it's better for that task, regardless of whether one likes the hand screwdriver better. I honestly do not have a preference regarding whether things are strictly material in either direction, regardless of your attempt to portray otherwise. Saying that one who points out that at present, as a tool for reaching useful understandings about reality, materialism seems to serve notably better than the alternatives is a materialist doesn't lead to a particularly good definition of a materialist, quite frankly. If one stretches the term a fair bit, as you seem to be wont to do with terms, it can serve, barely, but it's not particularly meaningful at that point.
Sure. Not something which would normally interest a "methodological naturalist" except the "maybe" suggests that there may be doubt.
It may be worth noting that anecdotal information is important in the practical usage of methodological naturalism. It's just not firm evidence, itself.
Well to be fair - some are better/more skilled at doing so - such is the actual nature of the human condition. Often how we each approach an argument could do with adjusting. Even given that your criticism seemed tinted with anger and frustration and all chewed up and spat back I still took the essence of it and tried to restate the position - change my approach as it were - often ideas involving the immaterial require a whole different approach than ideas to do with material reality.
I'll grant you "frustration" far more than the rest. It's hard not to be a bit frustrated when dealing with someone who frequently seems to pay little to no attention to either what they're actually saying, what I actually said that they claim to be responding to, or what has been said before then and gets pointlessly argumentative when called on any of it. That's before getting to the repeatedly invoked fallacies and false or nonsensical claims with no meaningful attempt to deal with the counterarguments. A fair bit more could be added, but that's probably a good place to stop for now.
I am often reminded of reserving judgment without being too passive and not letting the emotion of annoyance have too much sway in my decisions. One has to be careful to thoroughly examine what constitutes 'deservance' - the point in this case being that if someone is genuinely doing the best they can and essentially motivated by goodness, then whatever their particular preferred position of mind-set - the mind-set is secondary in importance...as in - not here nor there...
This is a decent example of a tangent that doesn't actually address the point made and tries to handwave it away entirely anyways. "We should work together to make the world a better and happier place to live for our descendants for relevant reasons X, Y, and Z." is an argument that could be attributed some credit for behavior reasonably. "We are all connected by an overarching consciousness, therefore possibility X could be the case" is notably trivial in the first place, is invalid to seriously apply to anything even potentially of value, given that it doesn't take into account the rest of the available possibilities, and is categorically wrong to attribute credit for behavior to in the first place, as pointed out in the is-ought problem that was directly pointed out to you.
All well and good and I can respect that position as something which I don't need to argue against, apart from pointing out that the danger of judging others as you prefer to judge yourself (in terms of weakness) will lead to you having to see those not like yourself as using 'cheap justifications for doing things that they should prefer to do anyways' and such judgment can only normally lead to conflict, which in itself is neither good for you or anyone else really...although habitually it might 'feel good' in reality what good is it really doing?
They are cheap justifications and that's about all there is to them when it comes to this. There's no real way around that, honestly. It may be worth noting, incidentally, that I tend not to expect others to put all that much thought into their rationalizations and usually don't mind letting such pass, so long as they otherwise seem to be acting in good faith.
As I said (as an example) in an earlier post, some people find ways of overcoming depression which don't involve medications and it would be wrong for those who do use medication to claim that those who don't are wrong or somehow less superior etc...the same would also apply if the judgment was reversed...the main thing is that whatever it takes for people to behave respectfully toward each other and see good in the world and want to contribute to less suffering etc...if that is working, then let it be.
It may be worth noting that the exact nature of the depression should likely come into play there, but yes, seeking things to be proud of is a rather commonplace part of human behavior, even if it isn't really warranted.
Pertinently 'with or without' is the operative statement...and of course I did make the point of saying so myself, yes?
If understanding that we all are connected materially through one ancient ancestor has the ability to motivate the individual to better behavior, then well and good - same applies to this idea that we are all GOD, in relation to the existence of consciousness in the material world.
I wasn't even remotely saying that you hadn't said with or without, incidentally. The point was to point at the things that
actually matter for the goals that you hope to see reached, which, frankly, is a far better thing to focus on than something that you are effectively admitting
wouldn't really matter when it comes to the goals that you hope to see reached.
I would say it also has the potential to take advantage of human creativity in relation to things which don't exist but (taking advantage of what already exists) can bring such things into existence.
You do realize that this is pretty much meaningless except as an unrelated tangent with pretty much nothing to do with the statement made?
I am not entirely sure what qualifies you to make that claim.
Then point out where and how it's wrong, while keeping in mind the is-ought problem.
Generally speaking, evil by its nature destroys rather than nurtures and turns upon itself in the end. At any time though it can choose to be good and thus actually triumph.
What is destroyed matters, though, even when that somewhat questionable characterization is accepted. Effectively destroying the freedom of most and any reasonably viable chance of changing things could lead to rather stable, "evil" future.
But preparation is more likely to be undertaken in the good camp than the evil, because evil is distracted by its own short term purely material desires and lust for power and need for inequality etc...and being distracted from even noticing the bigger picture it is more likely to be unprepared and more likely to be taken by surprise.
Potentially. It largely depends on what their actual motivations are, the tools at their disposal, and how well they manage to do things. "Evil" tends to have more than one variety, after all, much like "good" tends to have.