Consciousness: not explained by panpsychism (General)

by David Turell , Wednesday, October 31, 2018, 18:38 (2213 days ago) @ dhw

DAVID: Formless energy /matter in this concept is given the property of complexifying all by itself with some sort of imagined self-contained mechanism.

dhw: Yes, the concept is as difficult to conceive as formless energy (God) simply endowed for ever with some sort of sourceless imagined self-contained non-material mechanism for consciousness.

DAVID: God is easy to recognize logically from the complexity of life.

dhw: Formless energy can’t become conscious, but formless energy can be conscious, and this is easy to recognize because life is complex. I do not follow the logic.

DAVID: The logic must be holistic, looking at every bit of evidence there is a designer. Questioning each tiny aspect of the evidence is not logical. Look at the video of the larva that decides to look like a snake when provoked and tell me it can't have been the result of a designer. Just a bit of evidence you keep denying.

dhw: We are not arguing about evidence for design, which you know perfectly well I accept – hence the whole discussion about your God’s possible invention of cellular intelligence as the designing mechanism. We are arguing, under the heading of “panpsychism”, about the origin of consciousness. There is no logic in the argument that formless energy can BE conscious but cannot BECOME conscious.

The concept is that one very special form of energy exists, like no other energy. God is not the same energy as all the other energy in the universe we know about. You keep forgetting that difference.