More Denton: A new book (Introduction)

by David Turell , Sunday, March 13, 2016, 18:23 (3177 days ago) @ dhw


> dhw: I don't know why you keep bringing Darwin and/or Nagel into the discussion.-Because Nagel's book is a reason to recognize that any theory of evolution, to be complete, must include an explanation for consciousness, and n one does so far. -> dhw: We know that nobody can explain consciousness (even Dawkins acknowledges that it is a mystery). If one explanation for the existence of consciousness is an unknown form of consciousness that has existed throughout eternity, we might just as well argue that consciousness can be explained by an unknown combination of energy and matter which occurred at an unknown moment during eternity.-I cannot believe that consciousness can simply arrive creating itself on its own from pre-existing eternal energy, which must precede the Big Bang.
 
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> dhw: The confusion is entirely your own. I don't know how often I have said that I can accept eternal energy and matter as a first cause. ....I am an agnostic. As for my theory about intelligent organisms, it relates to how evolution works. The source of that intelligence remains unknown, but might be your God.-Stuck on the fence, but thank you for admitting my side of the discussion is possible. I still see first cause as pure energy. God dos not have a material body.