Very interesting! I never made the connection between materialism/empiricism and Taoism. Perhaps that’s why I was initially drawn to it. It meshes quite well with my scientific understanding as well as my Spinozist and Pragmatist philosophical outlook. It was actually my search for more pantheistic philosophies that initially led me to begin studying Taoism.

I actually agree with much of your practical analysis. As a self-proclaimed Neo-Taoist, I really have no religious practice nor desire to worship any deity. It really is a “spiritual atheism”. Yet, I find such beauty and peace in that.

I have no problem with admitting that good/bad are just value judgements made by beings within a specific context, a context which can vary in lethal and other not so pleasant ways for the beings that exist in it, yet also claim that the context itself is amoral. I don’t need the universe or God or the Tao to tell me what is right or wrong for me, I have a body that tells me that. I don’t need them to tell me what is right or wrong for others, because I have no right to claim that I know what’s best for them.

But maybe I was already predisposed to think that way before I began to study the Taoist literature. Maybe I was a former Christian flirting with atheism but still needing a little bit of that divine spark. Maybe I was already on that path and this philosophy spoke deeply to me. It still does.

I wouldn’t discount it completely. It may not be the Absolute, according to whatever philosophical criteria you want to use. But then again, how could possibly be the Absolute if it can be contained completely in human words and concepts? Perhaps we have different thoughts on the capability of human ability and cognition.