Week 15: Chapter 14 — The Consciousness of Humans

1.Wallace introduces what philosophers call the "hard problem of consciousness" — the difficulty of explaining why and how purely physical processes in the brain give rise to subjective, first-person experience. Why is this a problem for a purely materialist worldview? Why doesn't "the brain does it" fully answer the question?

2.He argues that the existence of consciousness — of minds that have beliefs, intentions, and subjective experiences — is best explained by a conscious Creator who designed conscious creatures. How does this argument complement the cosmological and design arguments from the previous chapters? What does it add that they don't supply?

3.Wallace points out the irony that atheists use their rational minds to argue that rational minds are nothing more than the accidental byproduct of non-rational physical forces. Does this undermine the atheist's ability to trust their own reasoning? How would you press on this in a conversation?