A Panpsychist Hypothesis (General)

by David Turell , Friday, June 27, 2014, 01:20 (3801 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: If I make something in my image, it must resemble me, and I must resemble it. Therefore we resemble your God. You specified that this image related to consciousness. Therefore there must be resemblances between God's consciousness and ours, and so it is perfectly reasonable to apply an anthropomorphic analysis to your personal interpretation of God's thinking.-Again, not the way I view it. I think of our consciousness as a very small manifestation of the UC; yes, resembling it but nowhere as complex or powerful in its attributes.-> 
> dhw: Of course you are allowed to believe what you want. However, I am also allowed to point out that a different concept of God (not to mention of the origin of the universe and life) can be extrapolated from the not illogical premise that consciousness can only function if there is something for it to be conscious of, and that information about matter can hardly exist before matter itself exists, and that any inventor will therefore have to gather information as he goes along. Such responses as "non-starter", "a mistake", "your own invention", "illogical", "anthropomorphic" sound just a little hollow when the only criterion appears to be your right to give your God whatever attributes you wish.-You may certainly make up any rules you wish for your concept of the UC. I see no reason why my UC cannot be entirely self-conscious without matter being present. We start at very different points in this discussion. Adler, my mentor, describes God as a'person like no other person, like no one we can conceive of or imagine. There is a vast gap between human persons and God, the person. Yes we are in His consciousness image, but each of us is a very tiny portion of what He is. This is why you and I are talking at cross-purposes. You are leaving out the enormous power in the UC, and since you are not following Adler, as I do, our discussion is worlds apart. You are trying to apply human thought to something quite different.-> dhw:The panpsychist hypothesis that forms the subject of this thread may be as full of flaws as your own concept of a universal consciousness, but I'd be most surprised if your theories concerning the presence of a universal consciousness in the quantum layer of reality were regarded by your fellow quantum theorists as being more likely than the presence of multiple consciousnesses or the presence of no consciousness at all.-The quantum theorists I read don't talk about dieties.