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Does Consciousness Survive Death? The Skeptics Do NOT Occupy the Scientific High Ground. [1]
['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.']
Date: 2025-04-25
In this diary I will address two competing theories of consciousness: that consciousness arises from the operation of the brain, versus, consciousness arises from a spirit that joins with the brain early on and departs upon death. I will not address whether or not there is some kind of Deity. That is a separate matter.
It is in order to discuss what is meant by "consciousness":
The key point is that consciousness refers to inner subjective awareness. It is not a physical "thing”.
The skeptics’ view is known as scientific materialism or just materialism - that there are altogether no supernatural phenomena - all physical events arise solely from physical causes. The skeptics view all mental events as epiphenomena arising from the physical activity of the brain,
but do not themselves influence physical events
This means all human actions must be the result of firing of neurons and other physical causes. There is no room for a "ghost in the machine" - an inner subjective awareness - to cause any action different than what is determined by physical causes. So in this case consciousness cannot do anything - it is merely a passive observer along for the ride.
But we all know that consciousness is not a passive observer along for the ride - we can form intentions and act on them. This is a case of a theory - the scientific materialist theory - making a prediction that is contradicted by observation. This is not something that can be fixed up by calling it a "god of the gaps" argument, which merely refers to an unexplained phenomenon. The skeptics do try to fix this up by claiming that contrary observations are an illusion. This puts them in the position of denying evidence that every one of us can observe every day. This is not the scientific high ground. This is a case of a theory making a fundamentally wrong prediction, which in any other matter would lead to the theory being rejected.
The ghost in the machine - consciousness - is not merely a passive observer. Consciousness is connecting with the brain and doing things. The skeptics would dismiss this as illusion. It is up to the reader to decide which view to embrace. What do you think?
Is there any room in physics for a separate existence of consciousness? What we know as ordinary matter and energy comprise only about 5% of the matter-energy of the universe. The rest is dark matter and dark energy, of which we know very little. That is a huge amount of unknown territory. Perhaps dark matter is the home of the spiritual realm.
In any case, whatever the physics of consciousness turns out to be, the skeptics do not occupy the scientific high ground here — the “epiphenomenon” theory of consciousness is contradicted by observation. There is no scientific justification for mocking, ridiculing, or demeaning believers in a spiritual dimension. It is also against the rules of the road:
DO NOT insult the character, intelligence, or background of people with whom you are arguing
I have earlier explored the subject from the viewpoint of what constitutes a valid scientific theory, here.
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