Why are we conscious? In 500 words.
A Brief Look at the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Why Does Anything Matter? A Brief Look at the Hard Problem of Consciousness
Consciousness is unlike anything else in the universe. It isn’t just about atoms, stars, or biology. It’s about what it feels like to see a sunset, to taste chocolate, or to wonder if you’ll succeed at something. Science is great at describing physical processes—how neurons fire or how eyes detect colour. But it struggles to explain why we experience anything at all. This gap between physical processes and the reality of subjective experience is often called the “hard problem of consciousness”. The “hard problem" is about more than just explaining brain activity—it’s about explaining why that activity feels like something from the inside.
What Is Consciousness?
When we talk about consciousness, we mean the “inner world” of experience:
Seeing the colour red and knowing what red looks like (not just the wavelength data).
Feeling sadness or joy from the inside (not just observing a brain state).
Reflecting on your own thoughts and realising you exist.
These first-person experiences are called qualia. They’re the “what it’s like” aspect of being a thinking, feeling being. Physics and chemistry describe things from an outside perspective, like measuring weight or temperature. But how do we explain the inside perspective?
Why It’s So Surprising
Imagine an advanced alien scientist who knows every physical law and all about brain chemistry. From the outside, it can describe electrical signals and chemical exchanges. Yet nothing in those equations would capture what it’s like for you to taste chocolate or fall in love.
Under a purely naturalistic view, where everything is just matter and energy moving according to blind laws, why should anything “feel” like something from the inside? Couldn’t the universe run perfectly well with robots that respond to damage but never actually feel pain?
The Challenge for Atheism (Naturalism)
A “Clockwork Universe”
If the universe is governed only by impersonal laws and random events, there’s no obvious reason to expect something so personal, valuable, and rich as consciousness to arise. It would be as if the universe went out of its way to create creatures who can experience beauty, love, and purpose—yet nothing in a purely blind process needs that to happen.Fine-Tuning for Consciousness
Even if someone says that consciousness “emerges” when matter is arranged in a certain complex way (like the brain), that just restates the problem: Why does that arrangement produce an inner life, rather than merely a complex but unconscious process? On atheism, it seems like an odd coincidence that the universe not only supports life, but also subjective experience—something that can’t be measured from the outside.
Why Theism Expects Consciousness
Under theism, it makes perfect sense that beings would exist who can love, reflect on morality, and seek spiritual connection. Consciousness is not just a weird add-on—it’s a core part of the universe’s design.
A Meaningful Creation
If there is a God who values goodness and love, then bringing about conscious creatures with the capacity for joy, moral reflection, and relationships aligns perfectly with divine intention.Explaining “Psychophysical Laws” or “Conscious States”
Whether you believe consciousness is non-physical (dualism) or entirely physical (but still somehow experiential), theism provides a reason for why the world should generate conscious minds. It’s part of the plan for a universe filled with beings who can appreciate beauty, pursue truth, and forge deep connections.
Does the Argument Work Even If You’re a Physicalist?
Yes. Even if you think consciousness is a purely physical process in the brain, it’s still puzzling why those physical processes produce a feeling on the inside. You might say it’s “just how the brain works,” but that doesn’t explain why a cold, indifferent universe ends up with the exact conditions allowing for subjective awareness. On theism, a God wanted creatures who can think, love, and choose. So it’s not shocking that brains would be fine-tuned to do more than just process data—they’d also experience.
The Core Idea
Atheism/Naturalism: The universe doesn’t care about feelings or meaning. All that exists is matter obeying natural laws. Consciousness ends up being a baffling stroke of luck—no one can say why it arises, only that it somehow does.
Theism: Love, knowledge, beauty, and moral agency have a purpose beyond survival. Consciousness is central to these values, so we expect that the universe would be set up to bring about conscious beings.
In essence, if you were to guess beforehand whether a blind universe would give rise to beings that can write poetry or feel sorrow, you might guess “almost certainly not”. If, on the other hand, a personal God is creating a world for meaningful interaction and moral growth, conscious life is exactly what you’d expect.
Part of a Bigger Picture
This argument doesn’t stand alone. It often goes together with:
Fine-Tuning: The physical constants of the universe seem set “just right” for life to exist. Consciousness is an even more delicate phenomenon than simple life.
Moral Argument: We have an apparent sense of objective right and wrong. Consciousness is the stage where we play out moral decisions.
Intelligibility: The universe is rationally ordered, and we, as conscious minds, can understand it. Why is that?
Together, these features suggest a universe that’s not random or indifferent but shaped to allow for life, mind, and meaning.
Conclusion: Why It Matters
Consciousness is the difference between a universe that’s a silent machine and a universe where love, art, moral reflection, and personal growth actually matter to someone. If the universe had no conscious observers, there would be no joy or sorrow, no moral responsibility, no pursuit of truth—just mindless processes.
The puzzle is: does an indifferent, purposeless reality accidentally produce such deeply meaningful experiences?
In short, the fact that our thoughts and feelings exist at all—that something as intangible as experience emerges from matter—suggests that the universe might have a deeper purpose. For many, this points beyond mere physical forces and towards the purposeful shaping of reality to include those who can truly feel, know, and care.
Ultimately, consciousness isn’t just another phenomenon; it’s the lens through which we perceive everything else. If consciousness is the heart of meaning, then perhaps meaning is at the heart of reality itself.
Further reading on the Big Questions of life can be found in Twisted Logic: Puzzles, Paradoxes, and Big Questions, by Leighton Vaughan Williams.
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