To: WSFAlist at keithlynch.net
Date: Mon, 4 Nov 2002 20:47:27 -0500
Subject: [WSFA] Fw: the mystery of consciousness
From: ronkean at juno.com
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at keithlynch.net>

--------- Forwarded message ----------

Dead But Awake: Is It Possible?
http://www.wired.com/news/print/0,1294,55826,00.html

Excerpt:

"There are two ways to view the universe," says Fenwick. "Our current
   world model is that everything is matter."

   In other words, everything that we think of as "real" in scientific
   terms has a physical form that can be perceived by our senses. But
   this model, which philosophers call "radical materialism," cannot
   explain the existence of consciousness, which has no physical essence.

   So how do we account for consciousness? "There's a little
   (unexplained) miracle, and consciousness arises," Fenwick says of the
   current paradigm.

   However, another theory proposes that the basic building block of the
   universe is not matter but instead consciousness itself. This is
   described as the "transcendent" view, a perspective shared by many of
   the world's religions.

.

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