Can Consciousness Best Be Explained by God's Existence?

[Neo-Scholastic]

God has all the explanatory power of a shrug of the shoulders.

You and others like you seem to be quite confused. There is a very big difference between ontological and methodological naturalism. Methodological naturalism has proven enormously useful for understanding the natural world. It only makes sense that if you want to study natural things you focus exclusively on natural causes and effects. You would have everyone take a leap of faith, and it is exactly that, and ignore the parts of reality that don’t fit neatly into the self-imposed limits of your own bias.

Your position is that everything true must be subject to empirical testing. Apply that to your own philosophy. The fact of the matter is that ontological naturalism doesn’t have any explanatory power. There is no way to falsify your stance.

The test of an overarching philosophy is its ability to draw together a wide range of phenomena within a single paradigm. As per the video and the OP, ontological naturalism has no place for intentionality. Any philosophy that leaves half of reality on the table, the inner world of subjective experience, is a failed philosophy. You can issue as many promissory notes about “someday, maybe” science will solve the hard problem, but they’re just that, promises. As far as that goes, you don’t even need to be a theist to consider consciousness fundamental in the same way that energy is.

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That there is something it is like to be (such as a being); to have a quality of experience.

The thing about Nagel is that he cannot seem to completely rid himself of the divine. And he desperately wishes he could.