I mentioned a few specific reasons for this in a recent post. However, I think many people believe these objections to a naturalistic account of mind are the creation of Christian critics. So, here are a few corroborating statements from those on the other side.
[P]hilosopher of mind . . . Ned Block . . . confesses that we have
no idea how consciousness could have emerged from nonconscious matter: “we have nothing—zilch—worthy of being called a research programme…. Researchers are stumped.”6Berkeley’s John Searle says this is a “leading problem in the biological sciences.”7
Jaegwon Kim notes our “inability” to understand consciousness in an “essentially physical” world.8
Colin McGinn observes that consciousness seems like “a radical novelty in the universe”; 9 he wonders how our “technicolour” awareness could “arise from soggy grey matter.”10
David Papineau wonders why consciousness emerges: “to this question physicalists’ ‘theories of consciousness’ seem to provide no answer.”11
If, however, we have been made by a supremely self-aware Being, then the existence of consciousness has a plausible context.
6. Ned Block, “Consciousness,” in A Companion to the Philosophy of Mind, ed. Samuel Guttenplan (Malden, Mass.: Blackwell, 1994), 211.
7. John Searle, “The Mystery of Consciousness: Part II,” New York Review of Books (Nov.16, 1995): 61.
8. Jaegwon Kim, “Mind, Problems of the Philosophy of,” s.v. The Oxford Companion to Philosophy, ed. Ted Honderich (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995), 578.
9. Colin McGinn, The Mysterious Flame (New York: Basic Books, 1999), 14.
10. Colin McGinn, The Problem of Consciousness (Oxford: Basil Blackwell, 1990), 10–11.
11. David Papineau, Philosopical Naturalism (Oxford: Blackwell, 1993), 119.
From Paul Copan, Loving Wisdom: Christian Philosophy of Religion, p. 105
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Thanks for the list!
“Not knowing does not mean that magic is a decent answer.”
Agreed. What relevance does this have?
“confesses that we have
no idea how consciousness could have emerged from nonconscious matter”
Correct. We don’t know.
Not knowing does not mean that magic is a decent answer.
Hi Morse,
It seems to me that consciousness is something like magic on naturalism.
As far as theism, instead of “magic,” I’d go with “power” or “omnipotence.”