Good point, about “ultimate” reality. However, I don’t take it to mean that “it must be differentiated between “God” and “Matter,” so I didn’t see it as a “trick” question at all—but I could be wrong. I’m not a philosopher. If you like, we could take out the word “ultimate,” and just as “What do you believe, regarding reality? God? Matter? Something else?”
Semantics aside, the point here is do you think that there is something beyond ourselves—do you believe, like the materialist, that we simply made up of matter, or are we created in the image of God, with a spirit that will never die? (I hope I made it clear that I am a believing Christian, and that we are created in the image of God—we are more than just matter—we have a soul.)
Good thanks for clarifying, but I didn’t take to mean that the question was precisely coming from you, rather the professor or the lesson material. In your revised format, then it’s all open to discussion from several points of view of course. I have to believe that man/intelligence/soul came from something beyond man himself, it did not evolve solely from an insect form. This is where God comes into the picture, as brought to us in the Bible.