If we’re conflating explanations with mere assertions, then I can explain reality even better than idealism—with Pastafarianism.
Don’t scoff. The Flying Spaghetti Monster isn’t just a myth. Haven’t you studied quantum physics? Every quantum wave function is a manifestation of the Spaghetti Monster’s noodly appendages—microscopic units of spaghetti scattered across the universe.
He is in all things and through all things. His fields penetrate all. All things are pasta.
Just as quantum fields are indeterminate within and determinate without, the Spaghetti Monster is mental within and material without.
This is the Dual Aspect Theory of Pasta.
With Pastafarian Dual Aspect Theory, we can "predict" that:
Quantum indeterminacy = free will (noodly internal subjectivity)
Classical determinism = material order (firm pasta exterior)
Aggregated spaghetti quanta yield both physical structures and emergent minds
As the universe accumulates pasta, consciousness and matter scale together. More pasta = more mind and more mass.Behold: a mechanistic account of both consciousness and physical reality. Testable predictions. Powerful explanations.
As you can see, by piling on baseless yet imaginative assertions, Pastafarianism can “explain” even more than idealism.
Therefore, by the logic of calling mere assertions “explanations,” Pastafarianism is superior to idealism—and maybe even to physicalism.
…Unless, of course, we agree that explanations require more than poetic storytelling.