Consciousness Is Not an Emergent Property of Matter
0:00/0:00 1x

Consciousness Is Not an Emergent Property of Matter

Published: May 22, 2020 - Duration: 08:23

In the search for a way out of this uncomfortable position, I have found that most atheists seem to gravitate to one particular explanation for consciousness: that it is an emergent property of matter which is ‘activated’ by the particular complex arrangement of our brains. The atheist wants to believe that this mysterious ‘emergent property’ of our brains is able to free us from the stark nature of matter that it behaves according to only rigidly predictable ways—according to the laws of physics and chemistry.

By Paul Price
Originally published June, 2018

Helpful resources

The Genesis Academy

Christianity for Skeptics

Is Human Life Special?

Support CMI

Our audio and video content are freely available but not free to produce. To support the ministry go to visit our site or simply text a donation to 84321. And thank you!

Links and show notes

Original article: Consciousness Is Not an Emergent Property of Matter

Are we nothing more than a bag of chemicals?

Does your brain make your decisions before you do?

Monkey minds

Are you dancing to your DNA?

Is evolution compatible with religion and free will?

Philosophy Questions and Answers

Follow us (if you want)
► Facebook
► Twitter
► Instagram

Helpful Resources

Is Human Life Special?
Christianity for Skeptics
The Genesis Academy

Related Content

Nothing more than a bag of chemicals
Monkey minds
Does your brain make your decisions before you do?
Consciousness is not an emergent property of matter

Creation.com Article Podcast

The Carnivorous Nature and Suffering of Animals S07E06 - 30:27
The Parable of the Cupboard and Genesis 1:29-30 S07E05 - 06:51
DNA: Marvellous Message or Mostly Mess? S07E04 - 23:38
Spiders Eyes in the Rocks S07E03 - 08:00
The Flood Was Historically Global, Not Hyperbolically Global S07E02 - 21:17
How Religiously Neutral are the Anti-Creationist Organizations? S07E01 - 15:30
Testimony to the Flood S06E26 - 09:42
Historical Science, Chaos Theory, and the Sliding Scale of Trust S06E25 - 20:25
Noah’s Flood—Why? S06E24 - 10:20
Isn’t It Obvious? Natural Selection Can Eliminate but Never Create! S06E23 - 14:02
Radioactive Dating Methods S06E22 - 08:24
Enoch: The Man Who Walked With God S06E21 - 06:57
Eclipses S06E20 - 08:46
The Geology Transformation Tool S06E19 - 12:16
Abortion ‘Choices’ S06E18 - 12:36
Sin Before the Fall of Adam? S06E17 - 14:07
Scopes at 100 S06E16 - 19:48
Evidence for the Bible’s History in Egypt S06E15 - 07:15
Orang-Outang or Homo Sylvestris: Ape-Men Before Darwin S06E14 - 28:20
Did Charles Darwin Become a Christian Before He Died? S06E13 - 32:27
Cats Big and Small S06E12 - 10:44
Where is Noah’s Ark? S06E11 - 13:02
Is God Unjust for Sending People to Hell? S06E10 - 08:51
A Fossil is a Fossil is a Fossil, Right? S06E09 - 09:57
Rainbows, the Covenant, and the Flood S06E08 - 09:29
Has the Ark of the Covenant Been Found? S06E07 - 17:26
A New Cancer Treatment Thanks to Darwin? S06E06 - 06:51
Green Power (Photosynthesis) S06E05 - 11:34
Facing the Light S06E04 - 07:00
Genesis: History … or Mystery? S06E03 - 09:49
Is Richard Dawkins an Atheist? S06E02 - 11:00
Calvin Said: Genesis Means What it Says S06E01 - 09:08
Science: An Answer to Prayer S05E24 - 11:01
Dogs Breeding Dogs? S05E23 - 13:14
Tailbone “Serves No Purpose”? S05E22 - 09:05
What Caused the Ice Age? S05E21 - 11:05
The Salt Range Saga S05E20 - 14:38
Sir David Brewster: Scientist, Creationist, Preacher S05E19 - 11:18
I’m Now a Tour Guide S05E18 - 09:40
Playing Games with Evolution S05E17 - 05:46
Honey — A Healing Gift from the Creator S05E16 - 11:35
Old Bee, Young Creation S05E14 - 07:14
Can it Bee? S05E13 - 09:20
A Sweet Revelation S05E12 - 10:33
Dancing Bees S05E11 - 09:22
The Global Flood According to the New Testament S05E10 - 12:08
Monkey Minds S05E09 - 13:19
The Biblical Minimum and Maximum Age of the Earth S05E08 - 36:23
Can’t Drink Milk? You’re “Normal”! S05E07 - 10:57
Hidden Messages in Scripture? S05E06 - 12:43
Should Genesis be Taken Literally? S05E05 - 23:39
Adam and Eve S05E04 - 18:21
The Mind of God and the Big Bang S05E03 - 21:10
Natural Selection in Paradise S05E02 - 19:15
Consciousness Is Not an Emergent Property of Matter S05E01 - 08:23
Dawkins’ Ironic Hypocrisy S04E23 - 07:55
How Landscapes Reveal Noah’s Flood S04E22 - 09:51
Designed to Adapt? S04E21 - 14:37
The Fallacy of Racism S04E20 - 09:33
The Ten Plagues of Egypt S04E19 - 14:55
Cloning: Right or Wrong? S04E18 - 14:29
Easter’s Earliest Creed S04E17 - 13:48
Why Do Children Lose Their Trust in the Bible? S04E16 - 07:12
Did God Make Pathogenic Viruses? S04E15 - 49:14
Evolutionary Racism S04E14 - 09:36
First Adam—Last Adam S04E13 - 13:13
Fitness and ‘Reductive Evolution’ S04E12 - 31:07
NASA Astronaut Ed Mitchell Says Aliens Are With Us S04E11 - 13:19
Genesis: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle S04E10 - 20:30
It's Not Science S04E09 - 22:44
Where Was Eden? Part 2 S04E08 - 20:13
Where Was Eden? Part 1 S04E07 - 30:32
Does CMI Deal With The End Times? S04E06 - 12:48
A Remarkable Witness to Creation—Satan S04E05 - 08:54
The Inspiration of Scripture Comes in Various Forms S04E04 - 23:34
Is the Big Bang Really Scientific? S04E03 - 12:58
Jesus Christ Our Creator S04E02 - 13:11
Biblical Creation Proves Pivotal to Evangelism S04E01 - 17:05
Did God Create Over Billions of Years? S03E24 - 17:27
Can We Be Good Without God? S03E23 - 12:18
A Swimming School of Fish Fossilized in Real Time S03E22 - 08:52
The Power of Ideas S03E21 - 07:47
The Nativity: Fact Or Fiction? S03E20 - 13:37
Star Witness to Creator S03E19 - 14:01
The Lost Squadron S03E18 - 11:16
The Incarnation: Why did God become Man? S03E17 - 29:45
Created to Fly! S03E16 - 14:08
Christmas - Why? S03E15 - 15:25
Life Imprisonment for ‘Feeble-Mindedness’? S03E14 - 07:42
The Breath of Life S03E13 - 14:11
Multiverse No Help for Evolution S03E12 - 09:14
We Are Less Than Dust S03E11 - 11:38
As Silent as a Flying Owl S03E10 - 05:56
Secular Scientists Blast the Big Bang S03E09 - 13:39
Hibernation, Migration and the Ark S03E08 - 14:28
The Relentless Dragon S03E07 - 09:07
Unnatural Selection (CRISPR on Netflix) S03E06 - 23:57
Why Were the Reformers Burned? S03E05 - 11:43
Dramatic Dinosaur Footprints at Karoola Station, Australia S03E04 - 09:13
God Created With Functional Maturity S03E03 - 15:39
A Detective’s Approach S03E02 - 12:55
Isaac Watts: A Poet in Awe of His Creator S03E01 - 18:27
An Overview of the Denisovan Puzzle S02E24 - 22:28
Liligers: A Testimony to the Created Kind S02E23 - 08:57
Genesis: The Missing Piece of the Puzzle S02E22 - 19:40
Secular Researchers Agree: Worldviews Control Science! S02E21 - 08:35
‘Watch a glasswing passing’ & ‘Nature’s self-cleaning marvels’ S02E20 - 09:03
Homeschool Conference: Great Encouragement and Some Concerns S02E19 - 13:40
Did God Create Life on Other Planets? S02E18 - 18:52
Deconstructing Darwin: Darwin’s Real Message S02E17 - 17:22
Where was Eden? S02E16 - 13:55
The Planets are Young: 5 Uranus and Neptune S02E15 - 27:38
Tilapia S02E14 - 06:26
The Planets are Young: 4 Saturn S02E13 - 16:24
The Planets Are Young: 3 Jupiter S02E12 - 23:37
The Planets are Young: 2 Earth and Mars S02E11 - 15:59
The planets are young: 1 Mercury and Venus S02E10 - 12:56
Translating Creation S02E09 - 08:19
Time—No Friend of Evolution S02E08 - 10:16
Peacock ‘eyes’ that hypnotize S02E07 - 04:56
Dolphin sonar (still) far better than man’s S02E06 - 06:02
The large ships of antiquity S02E05 - 09:46
Submission to Scripture—The Key to Understanding Our Worth S02E04 - 06:31
Design: just a trick of the mind? S02E03 - 13:27
The Birds of the Galápagos S02E02 - 12:00
Fossils in a day? S02E01 - 07:01
The Fall: A ‘Glorious Necessity’?! S01E24 - 14:16
How Old? S01E23 - 21:00
Dragons on Noah’s Ark S01E22 - 08:55
Jesus Teaching the Big Picture from Genesis S01E21 - 10:59
Newly Discovered Medusavirus Turns Evolutionary Theory to Stone S01E20 - 09:50
The sloth—slowest mammal on Earth S01E19 - 11:23
God’s DNA-detangling motors S01E18 - 12:22
Feathered dinosaurs S01E17 - 10:59
Scriptural Originalism S01E16 - 10:52
Japheth, remember to turn off the computer… S01E15 - 06:16
Our Young Solar System S01E14 - 11:18
Leonardo’s Dragon S01E13 - 06:30
How Noah’s Flood Shaped Our Earth S01E12 - 10:36
Deadly Plant’s Flowers in Amber Deadly to Evolution S01E11 - 05:30
The Myth of 1% S01E10 - 09:30
The Bible and Interracial Marriage S01E09 - 11:27
Dystopian Science: Part 3 S01E08 - 22:31
Dystopian Science: Part 2 S01E07 - 19:06
Dystopian Science: Part 1 S01E06 - 10:03
The Hummingbird: Creation’s Superhero S01E05 - 09:58
Over-engineered odour detectors S01E04 - 05:27
Why did Jesus die? S01E03 - 11:56
Whale explodes fossil theory S01E02 - 08:00
Dissolving the Fermi Paradox: Copernicus, Enrico Fermi, and Elon Musk weigh in S01E01 - 10:35
The Bible declares: In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth. Genesis 1:1
200K+
INFObyters
10.6K+
FEEDERS
5k+
FOLLOWERS
84K+
FANS
17K+
FOLLOWERS
2M+
YOUTUBE VIEWS