Jesus solves the problem of consciousness
Why is there such a thing as self?
How is it that we are able to grasp the universe around us, and in a way that we tend to marvel at its intelligibility and order? How are we able to understand that we are individuals who are self-aware? How are we able to be conscious, and to be aware that we are conscious? The nineteenth-century German romantic writer Jean Paul realized at the ripe old age of 7 that he was an individual “ego.” He expressed his surprise at understanding that "I am an I". This is the philosophical problem of consciousness. How is consciousness possible?1
Even thoroughgoing materialists, that is, those who believe that matter/energy is all that exists, are troubled by the fact of consciousness. Consciousness seems to be an immediate exception to the rule that “matter is all that matters.” It seems an obvious example of non-material reality. Kreeft and Tacelli offer a four-step proof that consciousness demonstrates the existence of God:
- We experience the universe as intelligible. This intelligibility means that the universe is graspable by intelligence.
- Either this intelligible universe and the finite minds so well suited to grasp it are the products of intelligence, or both intelligibility and intelligence are the products of blind chance.
- Not blind chance.
- Therefore, this intelligible universe and the finite minds so well suited to grasp it are the products of intelligence.2
Point 3 rests on the idea that mere natural processes cannot produce reliable thinking or consciousness. If “thoughts” are merely the motion of chemicals in the brain, why should they be reliable? Or why should that question be pertinent? The fact that we have consciousness, that we rely on it, that we can predict the behavior of the universe to some degree, that we are self-aware, all suggest that consciousness is real. If so, how could it arise from non-conscious, non-thinking matter? How could, say, a Kleenex box become conscious, self-aware? How could that happen over 100 years? Over 10,000 years? After 1 billion years? The answer is that somehow non-thinking matter, in order to become conscious, must be imbued by something outside itself, with self-awareness.
Philosophically, the problem of consciousness may be stated this way: consciousness, including the sense of self, cannot have arisen purely from any matter we can observe. From where then did it come?
The Bible, in stating that human beings are made by God in the image of God, explains how non-conscious matter could become conscious. When Moses first encountered El Shaddai in a burning bush, God introduced himself as “I am,” a statement of consciousness, self-awareness, and actual existence, as contrasted with the Egyptian gods with which Moses was acquainted. God’s holy name transliterated from the Hebrew is “Yahweh,” meaning “I am” or “I am who I am” or “I will be what I will be.”3 Again, the biblical construct of humans made in the image of God has great explanatory power when it comes to the philosophical problem of consciousness. Jesus said, “before Abraham was, I am” (John 8:58). All things, even our consciousness, hold together in Jesus.
1My friend Rick Stevens penned an interesting approach to the problem of consciousness. The skeptics with whom he was conversing maintained that our thoughts are all mere illusions. He refuted the claim that thoughts are personal illusions with an infinity mirror thought experiment.
2Kreeft & Tacelli, Handbook of Christian Apologetics, Downers Grove, Illinois: Intervarsity Press, 1994, p. 66.
3The word Yahweh more or less transliterates the Hebrew name of God, which when given to Moses (Exodus 3:14) actually was four consonants YHWH known as the tetragrammaton. This in turn often is translated in English Bibles as “LORD” (or a capital letter and three small caps). When the word “Lord” (a capital letter and three lower case letters) appears in an English version of the Hebrew Bible, it often is translating “Elohim” a more common name for God.
This blog article is an excerpt from my book: Five Languages of Evidence: How to Speak about Reasons for Christianity in a Post-truth World. Not yet published; available upon request.
Next post: Unifying theme of the Bible