Creatonism and Materialism: Estranged Twin Brothers
In Western debate, both in academia and the Internet, since Enlightenment and its numerous spawn (Secularism, Rationalism, and Materialism) have long changed how people view the world, we've been bearing witness to a decades-long debate between Abrahamic Creationism and Secular Materialism which gave rise to an apparent dichotomy ever since: the world is either a product of an unborn creator deity or is a result of lifeless matter that's moved by kinetic energy and creates life.
Both of them envision an unmoved prime mover, a concept that dates back to Aristotle.
Aristotle argued that if everything that moves is moved by something else, that would be traced back to an endless chain of causes and, in his logic, you cannot have an infinite regression of moving parts. There must be a foundational anchor at the beginning of the chain—something that initiates the phenomena of motion and change while remaining completely unmoving and without a cause.
From this notion, stemmed the two main characters of this dilemma:
Creationism: Everything in the universe must trace back to a single, foundational source of mind (God), which then speaks physical reality into existence. Mind comes first; matter is secondary.
Materialism: Everything in the universe must trace back to a single, foundational source of matter (particles/energy), which then builds up minds through evolution. Matter comes first; mind is secondary.
While they seem like mortal enemies—one scientific and secular, the other religious and dogmatic—they share the exact same psychological and philosophical impulse: the desire for a neat, totalizing "creation story" that explains how everything came from a single, primary source.
Culturally and historically speaking, both are mirror images of each other.
And we all know what's up with the concept of unmoved mover; it dosen't add up.
Simple, basic things in the universe can only be created by something that already shares their exact nature. Consciousness (the ability to experience and be aware) is one of those basic things. Physical matter (like rocks, atoms, and also organs such as brain) does not possess awareness, thus it can't create it. Because physical matter can't create awareness, the only thing that can cause a new instance of consciousness is a previous instance of consciousness.
You can't get awareness out of lifeless matter. Therefore, consciousness must have always come from pre-existing consciousness.
In mainstream science (Materialism/Physicalism), the prevailing assumption is that physical matter comes first. Under this view, unconscious atoms arranged themselves in complex ways (like the human brain) and somehow generated consciousness. But how come unthinking, unfeeling physical building blocks generate something that thinks and feels?
Also, something physical such as matter, has to be a result of previous conditions, however, materialism views matter as the fundamental, uncreated substance of the universe from which all things—including life and consciousness—naturally emerge through physical laws and interactions.
Materialist philosophy insists that matter is an objective reality existing unconditionally and outside of any observer's mind. The superficial difference is that matter isn't seen as something that does things out of its own volition, because it has none, whereas the Abrahamic god is seen as a conscious being with volition and source of everything.
Both are treated as a starting point and with nothing else that precedes them because both have always existed. Both demand a ground zero, an ultimate substance or being that acts as the anchor for all reality.
With this, matter becomes a secular deity, because it assumes a completely passive and unthinking object to create life. Though Materialism highlights that it does under conditioned phenomena, unlike Creationism, the difference stops there. Instead of saying "God said 'Let there be light' and magically created everything," materialism says "Unyielding dead matter blindly collided and magically created everything." Matter doesn't actively "try" to build a brain or create a universe; it is completely passive, mechanical, and unconscious. Yet, through the sheer rules of physics, everything in existence is pulled, shaped, and evolved out of it.
The answer to both is Vijñaptimātra, the framework where consciousness is the foundational fabric of reality. But, unlike Aristotle, Creationism and Materialism, consciousness is seen as an impermanent and constant flow instead of something static and eternal.
In Vijñaptimātra, consciousness operates on mutual, feedback-loop causation. The storehouse consciousness holds potential "seeds" (bīja). These seeds sprout into your thoughts, actions, and perceptions. However, those very same thoughts and actions then reorganize the storehouse, planting brand-new seeds for the future. Consciousness builds reality, and reality feeds back to change consciousness. It causes itself, but it does so dynamically, not as a static rock.
Matter is made with the primal four elements (Air, Earth, Fire and Water), is always changing, lacks an independent core, and is linked with consciousness.
Creationism and Philosophical Materialism function as a one-way street: it pushes or inspires everything else, but nothing affects it back.
Dialectical Materialism acknowledges that matter doesn't operate in a one-way street framework, rather it exists in a state of constant, mutual interaction. However, it still treats matter a primal source that exists independent of mind/consciousness and the source of said mind/consciousness.
At the end of the day, both Creationism and Materialism are seen as opposing and exclusive forces that clash with each other. However, they clash not because they have any concrete difference, but because of a power struggle.