A THEORY OF INTELLIGENCE Part Two (Identity)

by dhw, Wednesday, May 09, 2018, 12:59 (2389 days ago) @ David Turell

dhw: Consciousness or intelligence is not material, whether you call it “pure quantum energy” or a “soul”. So do you agree that your God might have designed a mechanism whereby materials produce the conscious energy which dualists call “soul”?

DAVID: No, I think God gave us part of His consciousness added to a material brain.

dhw: This is the essence of theistic dualism. Would you then agree that without the addition of God’s consciousness, the material brain itself would be without consciousness?
DAVID: As in apes.

Consciousness is not confined to human self-awareness, and I thought you believed that our fellow animals also had souls. But that it is a different subject, so let’s stick to humans.

dhw: And would you agree that thinking is impossible without consciousness?

DAVID: Yes.

dhw: If so, and bearing in mind your belief that the piece of God’s consciousness still thinks/remembers/feels/ makes decisions etc. when the brain is dead, would you not agree that the FUNCTION of God’s consciousness in life is to conduct all the mental processes, and the FUNCTION of the material brain is to provide the information that is processed, and to give material expression/implementation to the thoughts of God’s consciousness?

DAVID: The consciousness God gives us becomes our consciousness and uses our brain networks to think during life.

Of course it becomes our consciousness (if this form of dualism is true), and it takes its individuality from whatever factors mould it during its lifetime. But why do you refuse to discuss its FUNCTION in the duality you believe in, and which you were always so keen to illustrate with the software/hardware analogy, in which the software provides the thought and the hardware does the implementation?