Today's post on Raving Atheist (who, from the content of his recent posts, does not seem to be an atheist anymore … at least not the "raving" type) got me thinking about human consciousness. The RA notes that "Certainly I recognize there is a relationship between my consciousness and my brain, that there is perhaps some necessary foundation of matter which must support my every thought. But that I must stand upon a mountaintop to behold the view does not mean that I am the mountain, as lifeless as its rocks and dirt."

J. P. Moreland is a philosopher who has some interesting thoughts on the subject of consciousness, and how it applies to faith:

It will not do to claim that consciousness simply “emerged” from matter when it reached a certain level of complexity because “emergence” is merely a label for (rather than an explanation of) the phenomena being explained. [If] we are made in God’s image, there should be something about us that can’t be adequately explained without postulating God’s existence. And that is the case with mind and consciousness. Their reality supports the falsity of naturalism and the truth of theism.

For how Moreland reaches this conclusion, see his article "Does the Argument From Mind Provide Evidence for God?" Note that this is not a 'God of the gaps' type of argument. Moreland here is arguing that "even if evolutionary theory is someday able to adequately explain the origins of the human brain, it will remain fundamentally unable to explain the existence of the human mind." Worth thinking about.