Mind-body problem

Ken Samples addressed the problem of consciousness, noting that “scholars in fields concerned with consciousness must contend with the relationship between consciousness and the brain (known as the mind-body problem). While recognizing the profound complexity of the issue, naturalists have long proposed that it has a natural explanation. Secular neuroscientists believe physical events (brain) cause mental events (mind). According to this widely held view, consciousness is merely a byproduct of the brain (called epiphenomenalism). It is believed that the mind emerged as a caused property of the brain once the brain reached a certain level of evolutionary complexity.” Samples continues to cite comments by Thomas Nagel, philosopher of mind, who “concludes that Darwinian materialism has failed as a comprehensive scientific explanation for conscious reality. Nagel rejects both reductionist and emergent physical explanations for consciousness, stating that ‘consciousness is the most conspicuous obstacle to a comprehensive naturalism that relies only on the resources of physical science.’” I conclude this post with Samples’ comments, “Christian theism and the existence of the biblical God provide a rational explanation for the presence of conscious beings in the universe. Christian philosopher Gregory Ganssle offers a succinct explanation: ‘If God exists, then the primary thing that exists is itself a conscious mind of unlimited power and intellect. This mind has its own first-person perspective, and it can think about things. The notion that such a mind, if it creates anything, would create other conscious minds that have their own first-person perspectives and can think about things is not a great mystery.’ . . . It is more reasonable to conclude that the human mind, personhood, reason, and self-awareness ultimately stem from a source (the mind of God) that possesses all these incredible qualities exponentially.”

Stan Lennard