How certain is materialism/physicalism as a description of ultimate reality?

Not necessarily. For there are ways to scientifically test these kinds of things. An example for that is the so called "Aware Study" (Apparently, looking this up now, there's an Aware 2 study going on, interesting)This study dealt with a small portion of people who, after some accident or sickness, end up in the hospital and clinically dying but then get revived. Some of these people would then talk about out of body experiences, seeing the operation happening from a higher point of view.The Aware Study tried to test this, aligning with a lot of hospitals, it would place cards in places you couldn't see from anywhere in the room normally, unless you were well, out of body. These cards had numbers on them so when an out of body experience supposedly happened, there'd be something verifiable that the patient couldn't otherwise know about or see in any other way.I remember the first study giving no result though, over the span of multiple years, there were very few of those in the right place at the right time that had an out of body experience, and none of those few saw the cards.But, it does pull something that is otherwise seen as a spiritual, metaphysical realm kinda thing and through scientific experimentation, pulling that into a physical light.There are thus, ways of studying the supposedly metaphysical or spiritual, but I guess, if the study succeeds, it won't at that point be metaphysical or spiritual anymore.

I am laughing so hard at this turn of events. Also, welcome back ChatGPT. Now, I have to ask though, it's easy to focus on the faults of religions and the harm it has done, but even if we agree on being critical of religious dogma, is there any good that has come out of religion or religious belief?What do you think?

Fair point, but isn't it also fair to say that humanity has created a lot more means of spreading misery than just religion?Science has created weapons and ways of killing that are gruesome to say the least, some of those banned from use because they are too gruesome, to inhumane, yet humanity has created them.And then look at something like money and greed, personal wealth has never been a hotter topic than today, where a small minority in the world have access to a majority of the wealth and in turn the power to control others and dictate the rules or avoid them because they can throw money at the issue. The Bhopal disaster comes to mind as an example, but there are many more events in our history that showcase the horrors of what humanity can do without religion being the reason for it.Certainly, religion has its fair share of horrors, but it's most certainly not the only endeavour of humanity that has that going for it. If it is defined by the tragedy that has happened in its name, which human endeavour does not have a history bathed in blood and missery?

Good lord this bot hates religion so much, it's intense!