CONSCIOUSNESS IS NOT A RELIGIOUS OR SPIRITUAL SUBJECT OR MYSTERY
Consciousness picks up what is really there – objective. And what seems to it to be there – subjective. It is observing. So it is just taking information. It is not a cause. It is not an effect. Consciousness is a process. Energy is work and consciousness is working all the time to reach out to sense what is there. It is an energy.
The first thing here is that consciousness is about claiming to be accurate but in fact is not. This fits the view that whatever it is and whatever turned into it, it had nothing to do with a God of truth and love. There is no excuse for arguing that it sounds ghostly or like a spirit and must indicate a God. And even if you have a spirit, it gives you no reason to argue that there is a God any more than having cheese in your fridge means that the moon may be made of cheese.
Consciousness cannot go out to a tree to check if it is really there. Your
senses that tell you it is there, eg eyes, touch, can mislead. So in reality
conscious makes a probable guess about what is objective. It is not a foolproof
detector of objective truth. A mind with antenna no matter how good it is is
dependent on them. If an antenna is malfunctioning the brain may never know.
Consciousness is not a gift from a God of truth for that reason.
Consciousness picks up information yes but it picks up itself too for it knows it is there.
It knows it is there. That is where the mystery is. A
plant detects where the sunlight is but consciousness is aware that it is
conscious. That is the bit that people find hard. The way consciousness is
aware of itself makes it, or I am aware of me, leads some to assume that it is
some kind of soul, some kind of
mystery.
Incidentally, while I gaze at my navel and wonder at how conscious I am and how that wonder
can be, I don't puzzle or mystery monger about people or animals or creatures
that I consider somehow inferior to me.
Some say consciousness is about feeling. What if it is? Feeling happens only to what can be
aroused to feel something. It is a response to some stimulation. Arousal is
about sensing dangers. Surprisal is the trigger that a possible danger is there.
Even when we are not aware of sensing danger, we are in fact taking steps to
avert it. Danger is always in our minds. When you feel safe and happy with your
family you only feel safe and happy because there are dangers and they do not
seem to be a direct problem right now. They remain indirect problems and you see
that but you feel it is time not to worry. So even when you feel good it is
because of danger and because of its possible presence. You know that fearing
danger all the time is a danger in itself so even that happiness is based on
defiance, aggression in a sense.
If consciousness is a mystery, it is not a religious or god-related mystery
assuming God and religion are about harmony, real harmony. We have seen that
there is no real harmony behind our happiness. Considering how vulnerable we
actually are and we do not know if we will or won't be cruelly slaughtered in
the next few minutes a lot of happiness is really relief made out to be
something more positive. Anyway, at its core,
consciousness is about survival. That entails detecting threats and wanting them
savagely destroyed if necessary. This is completely in line with Darwinism which
says our core is not about reaching for God but for reaching for safety. It is
not about warm spiritual feelings.
All that is summed up by the expression, “Feeling is being.” In other words,
your consciousness is feeling. Even when you feel nothing you have the feelers
out. Feeling numb is a feeling. Yet it is easily mistaken for having no feeling.
OBJECTION:
If being is feeling surely you need something to have the feeling? There
has to be something that is able to experience the feelings.
Consciousness is like a sense and a sense feels what is there.
And if you are going to say something has to have the feeling, then the something could be a feeling itself. You said something meaning you admit you don't know.
Watch out for reasoning like, "My eye sees. But there must be something more to it than that. There must be some hidden or magical power to make it do this." This is like being amazed by a grain of sand and because of how you feel about it you think there is more to it than just sand.
Don't let religion and faith hijack your consciousness to make a
paranormal or occult or religious point out of it.
