The Fruitless Search for the Source of Consciousness
If the scientific method focuses on the testable, then the genesis of consciousness is not a scientific question.
Consciousness isn’t a “hard problem”, as the philosopher David Chalmers famously described it (1996). It’s an unsolvable one. Any explanation we come up with for it, from a theological one to a materialist one, begs questions we simply can’t answer.
If we offer God or some other “supernatural” source as the answer, we must then explain where the consciousness for this apparently intelligent creator came from. Simply saying this source is eternal is just another way of saying consciousness always existed. In other words, it’s just an inherent part of the universe, which is ultimately no different than suggesting it’s an inherent quality of matter itself (a position I will come to shortly).
As for consciousness emerging from matter, this won’t do either. By what means does unconscious matter, if put together just so and in sufficient quantities, suddenly start acting consciously? If a single atom, molecule or cell is by itself unconscious, why should the sum of all this unconscious stuff under any circumstance start producing consciousness?
