![]() When defined as self-awareness, many agree that apes and dolphins have consciousness. A debate then follows as to how far down the ladder of complexity does consciousness go. No satisfying explanation has yet emerged to show how the random interactions of subatomic particles and forces should end up producing the works of Shakespeare, the inspiration of poetry and music, the experience of the taste of chocolate, or other abstractions.Įspecially in the West, it is common to think of consciousness as something that people “have”. Yet the fundamental nature of consciousness – its actual mechanism – continues to be known as “The Hard Problem” (as coined by philosopher David Chalmers). (These are mostly the “there is no free will” crowd.) Some go so far as to suggest consciousness is merely epiphenomenal - an illusion - something that rides along with physical activity but has no real causal effect. In contemporary science, this ability to have subjective conscious experiences, is held to be an end-product of evolution, once the nervous system has reached a sufficient level of complexity. Perhaps a simple, rock-bottom definition of consciousness that both metaphysicalists and scientists might agree upon would be: “A change in perceptual state due to interaction with a phenomenon perceived as ‘other’ to the perceiving/experiencing entity”. (The first six topics are not specifically about prayer, but are necessary prerequisites for final theory.) To fully explore this topic would require a textbook, but as a first-pass high-level overview, we will consider the following topics in a series of blogs. Despite many claims to the contrary, perhaps there may be an intersection between science and spirituality after all. What follows then, are some exploratory thoughts about the meaning of prayer in light of current understanding of the sciences, human psychology, and of the cosmos at large. ![]() If the term “prayer” is a stumbling block, you may substitute “directed quantum decoherence” (though it is a bit more unwieldy.) The reader is urged not to prematurely dismiss the following on this basis. Note that through the millennia, the term “prayer” itself has taken on many connotations, some of which may seem trite, sentimental, or superstitious. ![]()
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