Argument from Consciousness

Conscious, intentional minds are difficult to explain on a purely physical account of the world, and theism explains them better.

Tagged: Arguments for God Mind

The argument from consciousness begins from the fact that human beings are not only physical systems, but subjects who think, feel, intend, and understand. Consciousness has a first-person character that is hard to capture in purely physical terms: there is something it is like to see red, to feel pain, or to grasp a reason. The argument claims that a purely naturalistic account struggles to explain why such inner life exists at all, and why it should be rational and truth-directed. A mind beyond the world, on this view, makes conscious minds less surprising than matter alone would.

The Argument in Form

Conscious, intentional, rational minds exist.
Such minds are not adequately explained by purely physical processes.
A mind that grounds the world explains them better than a mindless physical order.

Therefore, the existence of conscious minds is evidence for a divine mind.

Proponents and History

The argument draws on a long tradition in philosophy of mind, from Descartes' distinction between mind and body to contemporary work on qualia and intentionality. In recent decades, philosophers such as J. P. Moreland and Richard Swinburne have argued that the existence of souls, or of irreducible mental properties, fits a theistic world better than a materialist one. The hard problem of consciousness, named by David Chalmers, has given the argument new force: even a complete physical story leaves the question of why experience exists at all.

Standard Objections

Critics reply that neuroscience and psychology are steadily explaining more of the mind in physical terms, and that an unsolved problem is not the same as an insoluble one. Physicalists argue that consciousness may emerge from complex brain activity, even if the emergence is not yet fully understood. Dualist critics add that positing a divine mind does not by itself explain how a mind produces physical effects, or why human minds should be tied so closely to brains. The argument therefore depends on the claim that the gap is principled, not merely temporary.

References

Oxford Bibliographies — Arguments from Consciousness Subscription

Related Across the Site

Aesthetic Argument Argument — The experience of beauty and sublimity points beyond the natural world to a source of beauty itself.
Argument from Miracles Argument — Reports of miracles, above all the resurrection of Jesus, provide evidence that a supernatural power acts in the world.
Argument from Reason Argument — The reliability of human reason, and the laws of logic themselves, point to a rational ground beyond the natural world.
Argument from Religious Experience Argument — Widespread and persistent religious experiences are best explained by a transcendent reality that people genuinely encounter.
Cosmological Argument Argument — Everything that begins to exist has a cause, and the universe began to exist, so the universe has a cause.
Moral Argument Argument — Objective moral values and duties exist, and they are best explained by a moral lawgiver.
Ontological Argument Argument — God is the greatest conceivable being, and a being that exists is greater than one that does not, so God must exist.
Teleological / Design Argument Argument — The order, complexity, and fine-tuning of the universe point to a designer rather than to chance alone.

Related Arguments

Argument from Reason — The reliability of human reason, and the laws of logic themselves, point to a rational ground beyond the natural world.
Transcendental Argument — Logic, science, and objective morality presuppose the Christian God, without whom they have no final ground.
Moral Argument — Objective moral values and duties exist, and they are best explained by a moral lawgiver.