Let’s see if we can offer a logical argument in support of Gödel’s rejection of materialism (while keeping in mind that a symbol is not the thing that it represents; i.e., the word “tree” is a symbol in English that represents an actual physical entity, but the symbol “tree” is not an actual tree.)
1. The laws of physics are foundational to all of science.
2. The laws of physics are mathematical relations.
3. Mathematical relations depend upon numbers.
4. All numbers are built from 1 and 0 (“2” is merely 1 + 1, and zero is the absence of any 1)
5. Zero itself has no physicality (it represents nothing, after all).
6. One itself has no physicality (you can find 1 tree, or 1 car, but you cannot find a pure “1” itself in physicality – if you don’t believe me, I invite you to look for it).
7. Since numbers represent “something” that is not physical, then the laws of physics represent and/or ultimately depend upon something that is not physical.
8. Therefore, we are left to conclude that either: (a) the laws of physics are real but not physical, which makes materialism false; or (b) the laws of physics are not real, which makes the foundation of all of science unreal.
9. Despite its apparent extraordinary success, if the foundation of science is unreal, then ultimately it cannot provide any basis for objective truth in reality, and therefore cannot be said to prove materialism (or anything else) to be objectively true.
