Is Consciousness An illusion?

Eastern philosophies, Eastern religions, and scientists who believe there is nothing more than matter (materialists) all say the same thing: consciousness (or the self) is an illusion. You might have even been told this by a school teacher, as I was. This idea contradicts itself though. The reason is that illusions can only be experienced by conscious, thinking beings. An illusion is thinking that something is happening which really isn't. You can't think that you are having thoughts and actually not be having thoughts. Can a rock experience an illusion? Can sand? No indeed. If my consciousness were an illusion, it would have to be a trick being played on another being that thought it was awake in my mind. It is a typical 'kick the can down the road' argument.

As reasoning for the self being an illusion, it is declared that since we are made of so many small parts (molecules, etc.), surely it is silly to think of ourselves as individuals (as if parts do not make up a working whole!). Is it true that a car is not really a car because it is made up of parts? No, that would be silliness. More importantly, it is misdirection to point to our bodies when we are talking about the conscious self, and we experience consciousness completely cohesively.

What can we conclude then? Consciousness is real.

Could the Mind Be Made of Matter?

Consciousness & Chemicals

Can matter bring forth consciousness? The modern 'scientific' take is that consciousness is an 'emergent phenomenon'—which is when brand new properties appear when parts without those properties are put together. The obvious question though, is how? On what basis do many scientists believe that consciousness appears from matter? On the basis that they believe there is nothing else than matter. It is circular reasoning. And what else could be used? After all, it is not as though mass or energy has anything to do with the actual experience of a headache, or fury, or confusion, or the enjoyment of a delicious pie. Physical stuff is nothing like consciousness.

Some will say that feelings are chemicals, but happiness is an experience, not a chemical, even though the two are related. As much as people use 'dopamine' to describe pleasure now, dopamine is not happiness. Dopamine is only a chemical that is sometimes around in the brain when happiness itself is experienced.

Fixed Laws vs. Free Choice

Nevertheless, even though we see that the mind and matter have very different properties, could the mind emerge from matter somehow? No, and the reason is related to free will: Material things (everything made from physical matter) are governed by strict laws. (They have input from outside also, but that is beyond our scope here.) Only if the mind is free from those laws can real choices be made. Otherwise, thoughts would happen in whatever way the physical laws demand.

Nothing governed by fixed laws could give rise to and sustain something free to direct itself. A free agent can cause things to happen, but no cause can produce a free choice, or it wouldn't be free. Matter operates as though it is following a list of instructions, which is obviously not how free agents behave. Note that on this logic, we could no more expect the matter than makes up your brain to produce free will than a rock.

If the mind is not dependent on matter, which it cannot be, then we can establish this: matter might be produced from something that includes a mind, but not the mind from matter. There is no reason laws cannot be made by a free being—in fact, that is always the source of laws—but there is a reason why a free being cannot come from laws.

Free Will Or Madness

Before moving on, it is important to stress that free will is a certain fact. If you do not have free will, then none of what you believe can be relied on. You could not choose to believe true things, only things which the blind forces of nature make you believe. Yes, if you want to argue against free will, you have undermined your own position before you even open your mouth, since by believing you have no free will, you believe that you have no control over whether you believe the truth. You only believe what you have been programmed to believe, like a computer. Thus, everything you have to say is worthless. However, since you know that you truly understand that some things are true (such as 2 + 2 = 4), you must have free will.

Did Reason Come From Evolution?

If you are not a current believer in the evolutionary development of the brain, you can skip this section.

The ability to reason has been shown here to be dependent on free will, and it has been shown that consciousness cannot be dependent on matter. Notwithstanding, I wish to address the prevailing notion that reason developed through natural selection while putting aside the previous proofs that this must be false. I will also put aside the infeasibility of macroevolution, which you can read about here.

Reasoning which arose by natural selection could never be relied upon to find the truth, only what has been useful for survival. Therefore, believing that this is how your powers of reasoning arose undermines them, just as the belief that they rely on the set laws of nature undermines them.

But what if natural selection stumbled upon mechanisms that allow us to find the truth? 1. This is implausible, as what is true and what is useful to believe for survival or prosperity are frequently at odds. 2. You could never know it, even if it did happen. 3. There would still be no moral truth, as there would be no law-giver (read The Moral Argument).

Your Mind Has Not Existed Forever

Your mind cannot be the product of your molecules, so how does it exist? You only came into existence recently. If you always existed, the question would not need answering, but you have not, and there is only one conclusion: from another being with a mind. This is because, as we have established, something with no freedom of choice cannot create something with freedom of choice. It thus makes sense that a free being that came into existence must owe its beginning and continued existence to another free being: God.