Karl Marx — an atheist — once said that people take the ‘drug’ of religion “because this world is not adequate to assure man of his complete accomplishment and integrated development, [so] he compensates himself with the image of another, more perfect world.”
Materialism has its foundation built on atheism; therefore, it is important to discuss materialism. As suggested by the agnostic astronomer, Carl Sagan, the cosmos is all that was, is, or ever will be. Everything is matter or reducible to it and dependent on it. If matter were to cease to exist, nothing would remain. Materialism believes that all is matter or reducible to it. There is a belief that the material universe is self-sustaining and self-generating.
My Final Thoughts:
If it were true that matter is all there is, then there could not be such things as minds, personality, moral law, or GOD. After all, none of those are matter. However, the mind does exist and it exists distinctively apart from the brain in the manner of discrete thoughts and ideas. Materialists say that when the brain dies, consciousness ceases at the same time. However, this argument assumes that consciousness is a physical function, that “mind” is a function of matter. There is no proof for such an assumption. How could I know I am nothing more than my brain unless I was more than it? I cannot analyze my brain in a test tube unless I am outside the test tube. The fact that we can’t locate, weigh, or dye thoughts — as we can physical objects — reveals the inadequacy of a view identifying the physical with the mental/soulish — or reducing the mind/soul to the physical. Brains just don’t have the same properties that minds (or souls) have, and minds don’t have the same properties brains do. Therefore, the mental can’t be identical with the brain — or even produced by the physical brain. The materialist theory is not made up of matter. That is, the theory about matter has no matter in it. The idea that all is made of molecules does not itself consist of molecules. For the thought about all matter must itself stand over and above matter. Even the materialist speaks of personal thoughts. But if strict materialism were correct, there could be no discrete thoughts. They would be a mere stream of electrons or some other material particle. Only a self-conscious being can truly make thoughts. The attempt to deny that there is a reality beyond the material implies that a nonmaterial reality, such as the mind, exists. If everything is matter, then what is a scientific theory about matter? C.S. Lewis, quoting Haldane, wrote, “If my mental processes are determined wholly by the motion of atoms in my brain, I have no reason to suppose that my beliefs are true… and hence I have no reason for supposing my brain to be composed of atoms.”
Conclusion:
Materialism cannot account for minds, personality, or moral law. At the heart of materialism is the rejection of the existence of mind or spirit as a separate entity that surveys the dissolution of matter. How much does my thought weigh? What are the dimensions of my thought? No — you cannot put my thought in a test tube. Materialism is an untenable position and therefore must be rejected. Essentially, materialism is atheism. Though materialism has been rejected as Truth, atheism is not yet completely eliminated as Truth. From the stance of atheism, there are only two possible paths atheists can go: nihilism or secular humanism. Nihilism has already been rejected and eliminated; however, I cannot yet arrive at an honest conclusion about atheism until I thoroughly investigate secular humanism.
Quest For Truth 
I have a few questions. Although materialism does not account for thoughts, does not parts of the brain (which is physical) account for certain functions? For example, the frontal lobe controls reasoning, planning, emotions, etc. so isn’t thought a result of the brain functioning? In sports, like boxing, when opponents are hit in the head a bit too much, they suffer brain damage and at times, they are changed mentally. They no longer can function like they used to (reasoning, speech, motor skills are usually the most affected), does this not prove that thoughts are a result of the brain?
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Good question. Examine this article from NewScientist: (https://www.newscientist.com/article/2084244-brain-implant-lets-paralysed-man-move-his-hand-with-his-thoughts/)
A person can move a once-paralyzed hand or even a prosthetic hand/arm with thought if the brain connections are functioning properly. But even if the brain is “wired” correctly, what causes the brain to function? Who commands the function of the brain?
In another incident, a surgeon manipulating a brain caused a person to move his arm. When asked if the man had moved his own arm, he said no. Exactly. Because the person and body had a distinction. It is for this reason that a person can say his/her body sometimes functions in a way that is against his/her will. There most certainly is a distinction between the inner person and the body that person uses. The brain does not command itself; rather, a person causes the brain to fire commands to the body.
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