On naturalism and consciousness

[Lucanus]

Consciousness is an emergent property of the brain. Thoughts, beliefs and attitudes stem from the connections the neurons in your brain make after having an experience and consist of the flow of electrical charges in the brain. The brain is then capable of recalling past information by activating the same areas that were activated during the experience, thus creating memories.

Sure, but all we've ever been able to do is point to the parts of the brain responsible for certain aspects of our consciousness, such as the ones you've mentioned. But can you point to the area of the brain where you yourself exist, where your 'soul' resides?

I think that what we are, our "soul" as you call it, is the memories we have of what we were and what we have done. It's our past experiences that shape our present; it's our knowledge of the world that, intertwined with our ancestral instincts, makes us who we are.

I think that you saying that it's impossible for "particles to be about something " is arguing from ignorance. Of course we still don't know many important things about our brain and our consciousness, but there is no evidence of anything beyond the physical realm "pulling the strings" of our sentience. Saying that "it seems impossible" simply cuts the case clear and does not add anything to what we already know.

This topic reminds me of the time when organic chemistry was considered completely different from inorganic chemistry because most people believed it was impossible for atoms alone to form the complex lifeforms we know and postulated the existence of a "vital force" that made life itself possible. Guess what, the "vital force" didn't exist. Sometimes we like to think we are completely separated from the rest of the universe, don't we?