11.7.21 Huddle – Explorer Edition

Zach Below   -   November 7, 2021

INTRO QUESTION

  1. What is one of your earliest memories?

 

  1. What kind of phone did you have in your house growing up? When (if ever) did you get your first cell phone and what was it like?

 

 

TOPIC INTRODUCTION

Today we take a break from our study of Luke to explore an idea we don’t spend a lot of time talking about . . . consciousness. We will discuss questions like, Is our brain and consciousness the same thing? Will robots ever become conscious? And, does consciousness somehow point to a creator?

 

  1. Without any real introduction to the topic, if someone asked you if your brain and consciousness are the same thing, what would you say? Why?

 

 

THOUGHT EXPERIMENT – HOW CONSCIOUSNESS AND THE BRAIN ARE DIFFERENT

Imagine a woman growing up in a room that is completely black and white. She has never SEEN color but she has spent her life researching and studying color. She becomes a color “RED” specialist. She gets a masters in color theory and a PhD in “red.” In fact, she becomes one of the world’s leading expert on all things red. She knows more about RED than anyone in the world.

 

Then, one day, she escapes from the black and white world and for the first time ever she SEES red. Here is the question . . . when she saw red, did she learn anything?

 

How does this thought experiment illustrate the difference between the brain and consciousness?

 

LEADER NOTE: One way of summing it up is that the brain serves up the facts but consciousness is the 1stperson experience of the world.  If you were to clip out consciousness, you would clip out what is most important and valuable about the human experience.

 

 

 

TWO VIEWS ON CONSCIOUSNESS

While the Christ-centered worldview claims that consciousness is fundamental to being human and that our brain and consciousness are two separate things, there are other views/worldviews that would disagree. Two such views are called panpsychism and naturalism.

 

#1 PANPSYCHISM – Panpsychism is a view that is actually growing in popularity. It argues that maybe everything is conscious the same way that humans are conscious. Some level of consciousness is built in to all things from grass to cheesecake to electrons.

 

 

#2 NATURALISM – Naturalism is the worldview that claims that everything is made of natural elements (matter, chemicals, etc). There is no super-natural nor any real “consciousness.” Naturalism holds that the brain and consciousness are the same thing. What we think is consciousness is actually an illusion. What we think is consciousness is actually our brains just running out a pre-programmed software.

 

  1. What are your thoughts/reaction to these two views?

 

 

Alex Rosenberg is a highly regarded Professor of Philosophy at Duke University. He is a strong proponent of naturalism and claims that there is no real “self” or “consciousness.” To Alex Rosenberg, it is all an illusion . . . our minds playing tricks on us.

 

 

4 PROBLEMS OF CONSCIOUSNESS

Consciousness is currently a major subject in Philosophy of Mind departments all over the world. When it comes to consciousness, 4 major problems have been identified and discussed. When we explore various worldviews like naturalism, panpsychism, and the Christian worldview, we have to ask how each worldview responds to these 4 problems.

Here is how we are wording them:

PROBLEM #1 – HOW DOES MATTER WAKE UP?

PROBLEM #2 – ARE YOU JUST YOUR BODY?

PROBLEM #3 – ARE THE BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS RELATED?

PROBLEM #4 – DOES CONSCIOUSNESS EXIST WITHOUT THE BRAIN FUNCTIONING?

 

Here’s a quick summary of each . . .

 

PROBLEM #1 – HOW DOES MATTER WAKE UP?

Despite billions of dollars a year in research, humans simply cannot get “things” to become conscious. When you think of Alexa, Siri, or other AI, the closest we can get is to program them with “answers” . . . Much like the woman in the black and white world.

 

It is not simply that humans cannot figure out how to make other things become conscious, there is also the question of how humans became conscious at some point in their evolution.

 

  1. What is your reaction/thoughts when it comes to problem #1?

 

 

PROBLEM #2 – ARE YOU JUST YOUR BODY?

Did you know that over every 7-10 year span, every cell in your body is replaced by new cells? Your body changes completely throughout your life numerous times. If your body has changes, is it really you? The fact that “you” remain “you” even though every cell in our body changes, presents a problem for those who say the brain and consciousness are the same thing,

 

THOUGHT EXPERIEMENT

You see in the newspaper that someone is selling THE axe that George Washington used to chop down THE cherry tree. You are interested so you call the seller up. He tells you that George Washington is his great-great-great grandpa, and it has been in his family since that historic day. He tells you that the handle has been changed out 4 times and that the head of the axe has been replaced twice, but it is THE axe George Washington used.

 

  1. Is it really the axe? What does that have to do with “you” staying “you?”

 

  1. What is your reaction/thoughts when it comes to problem #2?

 

 

PROBLEM #3 – ARE THE BRAIN AND CONSCIOUSNESS RELATED?

It does seem like your brain and your consciousness do work together. For those that say that the brain and consciousness are two separate things, the fact that the brain and consciousness seem to work together does present a problem. For instance, when we think about mental health we know that there ARE medications that change the way you experience the world. We also know that brain injuries can affect the way you experience the world. This is a problem that has to be acknowledged for those that claim the brain and consciousness are different.

 

  1. What is your reaction/thoughts when it comes to problem #3?

 

 

PROBLEM #4 – DOES CONSCIOUSNESS EXIST WITHOUT THE BRAIN FUNCTIONING

Historian and theologian Gary Habermas spent years researching near death experiences. His research concluded that there are over 30 million near death experiences reported in America, England and Europe alone. Some of these stories are of people leaving their body and experiencing some kind of “other” place (like Heaven). Other times, people have recited serial numbers on top of equipment, talked about something that happened outside or to family members, or a variety of other experiences . . . all of which happened when brain functioning had stopped. These experiences where consciousness seems to exist without brain functioning present a problem for those that claim the brain and consciousness are the same thing.

 

 

  1. What is your reaction/thoughts when it comes to problem #4?

 

 

PUTTING IT ALL TOGETHER

So what do we know so far?

  • We know scientists have trouble figuring out how “stuff” becomes awake.
  • We know it is hard to explain how we are still “us” even though all of our cells change over time.
  • We know there are times when it seems like the brain and consciousness are at least connected.
  • Evidence seems to suggest that consciousness continues after your brain stops functioning.

 

Now, Let’s thing back to our 3 worldviews discussed earlier (Panpsychism, naturalism, and the Christ-centered worldview).

 

  1. How does panpsychism hold up under these problems/questions?
  2. How does naturalism hold up under these problems/questions?
  3. How does the Christ-Centered worldview hold up to these problems/questions, the idea that a CONSCIOUS MIND (GOD) intended to create conscious minds (us)?

 

 

FINAL QUESTION – Which worldview you think makes the most sense when considering the 4 problems of consciousness? Why?

 

 

CLOSE IN PRAYER