Is atheism a belief?

[LadyForCamus]

@bennyboy

I enjoy both sides of this debate every time we have it here. I’m wondering; is there any reason or evidence that indicates consciousness, or subjective experience as we understand it could not follow complex information processing?

<3 thank you for the nice comment!

I'd start answering this question by asking what "information" means, as it may introduce a very subtle circularity.

The most basic transfer I know of is of the transmission of a photon from one atom in a body, and its subsequent reception by another atom in a different body.  You could say that even the fact of this simple transmission represents information: for example, about the existence of the sun, about a clear path from the sun to my face (accounting for bending of that path due to gravity of course), and about the existence of my face in a particular place and time.

Given the countless energetic interactions via photons, heat exchange, chemical interactions and so on, then I'd wonder: how would one differentiate between "processing of information" and "irrelevant stuff happening?" Are the molecules in my face "processing" photons from the sun?  If a charge builds up in a cloud, and lightning results, is this the processing of a lot of information about molecules with extra ions, with a resultant lightning behavior?  We normally wouldn't frame it that way, but this is not that different than a neuron works.

It seems to me either that information refers to all energetic interchanges in the Universe (and which would hint perhaps at panpsychism), or that "information" is a term which is selectively applied by a sentient agent onto states of systems which it arbitrarily deems more important than others.  In the latter, defining mind in terms of information processing seems suspiciously circular to me.

--edit--
I think I didn't really answer your question, but I felt I'd have to take this detour before I could respond to you with anything like the intelligence your question deserved.  Hope it wasn't too text wall-ish.

It’s not a “text wall” at all, Benny.  I always enjoy your contributions. 

Just to preface, I’m no scientist, so if I’m using scientific terms or phrases incorrectly please feel free to course correct. To your first question, I think that the difference between ‘processing information’ and ‘irrelevant stuff happening’ is in the eye of the beholder, so to speak. I would say an atom “processing” a photon is not fundamentally different from a brain processing sensory input.  The difference in relevance is matter of degree. Despite sharing similar fundamental ‘energetic interchanges’, as you called it, brains are brains, and not storm clouds. They do what that highly specialized organ has evolved to do, which is process input.  So, is there a reason to think that processing at this level of complexity could not yield consciousness?