Different in degree or kind (Introduction)

by dhw, Tuesday, November 05, 2013, 15:16 (4036 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: We don't know the cause of the Big Bang, the origin of life, the cause of the Cambrian explosion, or the cause of human consciousness. They are a mystery which is not solved by substituting another mystery. Atheists have offered an equally mysterious alternative, and my panpsychist "third way" is subject to the same criticism. The evidence does not point to any of them. We don't know, we may never know, so it's all a matter of faith, and much as the various parties hate to admit it, none of these faiths has any scientific basis. They do, however, provide us with endless material for discussion!-DAVID: But here is where I disagree. I think the facts you listed really do point to a mysterious, unknown, hidden, etc.,etc., etc. You have left out the issue of agency. There must be a first cause. Can you answer the most important question of all, 'why is there anything?', with panpsychism? Is that the first cause? Talk about mysterious!!-We have discussed this ad nauseam. We have agreed that the first cause must be energy. You insist that this has always been self-aware. How come? That is one insoluble mystery. My panpsychist hypothesis is that unconscious energy evolved individual awarenesses within (and because of) the changing forms of matter that it produced. How come? That is another insoluble mystery. How chance can assemble the ingredients for life and consciousness is another insoluble mystery. Come to think of it, I'm not sure what first cause atheists suggest ... maybe they'd settle for unconscious energy too. You're right, though ... all three point to a mysterious, unknowable, hidden whatever. But yours is a single, self-aware whatever ... no more and no less mysterious than the others.