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A Practical, Logical, Non-dogmatic Approach

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Posted by Aurino Souza on July 5, 2001 20:44:51 UTC

Alex,

Forgive me if I'm wrong but you seem to be avoiding the issue. Here's how I think the problem should be approached:

Do you think you are conscious? If you think you are not conscious then there's nothing to discuss. If you think you are conscious then you must agree that consciousness exists, even if we can't define it.

Do you think consciousness is related to physical phenomena? That is, do you think matter, energy, or whatever it is that constitutes the physical universe, can be conscious?

If you think matter cannot be conscious, how do you explain the fact that you are conscious?

If you think matter can be conscious, do you think that can only happen in biological brains?

If you think consciousness can manifest in physical structures other than biological brains, what is the basic requirement for consciousness then?

If you think consciousness can only manifest in very unlikely circumstances, don't you think it would be much more likely that it never manifested at all, given the assumption that the laws of physics don't promote it?

Last, if the laws of physics do promote the manifestation of consciousness, isn't that essentially the same as saying the universe has a plan? In other words, that there is a God?

I don't have the answer to those questions myself, I'm simply curious as to how materialism deals with those issues. To write off mythical gods is easy, you don't even need science for that, logic alone does the trick. To explain life and consciousness however, that is a lot more complicated task.

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