The World as a Trick

In many religious traditions, the material world is viewed as inherently corrupt, and even satanic or evil. It's a soul trap. The thing we really are is temporarily put into a body of flesh and made to forget its true existence. (The Bourne Identity is a presentation of this idea. Jason Bourne wakes up in the water unaware of who he is or where he came from, and actually returns to the water in the final movie.)

In that movie, his "creator" really the person who made him (imprisoned him in a new chemically enhanced body) is a CIA minion. A whole cast of demons serve that devil and Bourne has to fight his way through to find the truth of his "birth" into this realm. (It's the same story as The Matrix or Conan the Barbarian.)

Materialism in the philosophical and in the common use of that word is really the embrace and worship of this world. It's a rejection of the idea that the spiritual and unseen world is the "true" home of man. It's the religion of the Establishment, even the various churches are fundamentally materialist and corrupt. The huge buildings and bank accounts of various denominations of Christianity testify to that.

Materialism tends to expand in a life of economic "success". Even though I live relatively "frugally" for example and am working to build a "natural farm", even the modest infrastructure and small house consumes almost all my free time. Counter-intuitively, trying to "escape" the beast system and simplify my life is a full time effort. Obviously, I'm doing something wrong.