God and Consciousness

These days, we have all accepted David Chalmbers’ characterization of consciousness, its origin and nature, as the ‘hard problem’. Prior to society’s collective secular lobotomy (aka the Enlightenment), we struggled with a different ‘hard problem’, the existence and nature of God.

Ironically, the solution to both problems turns out to be the same…and that is the solution!

Yes, you read right, but just to be clear, the solution to both problems is that the solution to both problems is the samesolution. Wild, I know! An analysis of the Trinitarian model of God (e.g. as found in Christianity) and a parallel analysis of conscious phenomena reveal a common structure:

Consciousness occurs whenever an entity (A) is aware of a world (W) external to itself and is also aware of itself (A’) being aware of that world. I diagram it here:

A

↙        ↘

W      ←      A’

As a result A experiences W stereoscopically, first directly, second by perceiving itself perceiving W. The infinitesimal differance (Derrida) between the two experiences is the origin of consciousness. 

This model can be generalized to represent the phenomenon of recursion per se, a phenomenon that minimally applies to all ‘living’ systems. Recursion is the primordial non-linear process that applies whenever the subject of an action is also in some way its object. In scriptural terms, what I do unto others I do unto myself; in linguistic terms, we are talking about events that are best represented using middle voice verbs (vs. active/passive).

It is annoying that the middle voice has all but disappeared from most modern Indo-European languages. It makes it hard to talk about process at its most fundamental level. We are left describing ornaments with no mention of the tree itself…much as we are expected to catalogue the manifestations of divinity in the World (aka Science) without acknowledging the existence of God.

Our model (above) can be further generalized to represent all situations involving ‘quantum’ differences, i.e. minimum perceptible distinctions. Marcel Proust provides illustrations of this phenomenon in his masterpiece, Remembrance of Things Past (1913):

“The sensation which I had once experienced as I stood upon two uneven stones in the Baptistry of St. Mark’s (Venice) had, recurring a moment ago (France), been restored to me, complete with all the other sensations linked on that day to that particular sensation… The past was made to encroach upon the present, and I was made to doubt whether I was in the one or the other… The moment to which I was transported seemed to me to be the present moment…”

Proust describes a phenomenon applicable to all experiences of ‘quantum difference’ (above). Convergence of qualia overwhelms divergence in spacetime. Events are related essentially, not existentially. Cause and Effect is replaced by Cause and Affect.

The Trinitarian model of God is based on the formula, ‘One God/Three Persons’. Christianity labels these persons, Father (F), Son (S), and Holy Spirit (H) respectively although a different terminology could be adopted by the theologically squeamish:

F

↙        ↘

H      ←      S

What is essential, per the Council of Nicaea (325 CE), is that the Father ‘begets’ the Son and the Holy Spirit ‘proceeds’ from the Father and the Son, exactly as modeled above.

Trinitarian God and the phenomenon of consciousness share a common structure and so, according to the tenets of 20^thcentury Structuralism (Levi-Strauss), they share a common identity. How so?

What we experience as consciousness is a manifestation of God’s presence in the World. According to one metaphor, God ‘sees’ the World through the ‘eyes’ of every conscious organism…about 10^30 of us and that’s just on Planet Earth today. Face it, God gets around!

In light of this, we need to update Descartes to read: Deus est ergo cogito! (“God is therefore I think.”) To be clear, I am not God per se but I am certainly the image and likeness of God. We share a common structure; we are inexorable templates, we are entangled.

Of course, as hinted above, this realization makes both ‘hard problems’ disappear. We know that God exists because we are conscious and we experience consciousness because God exists. Once again Hot Link to People’s Creed, we are struck by the simple profundity of a Medieval Irish poet (St. Dallan):

“Naught is all else to me save that thou (God) art!”

Quite literally true…according to our analysis. There could be no meaningful ‘you’ without God! Therefore, absent God, you are naught. Dallan is not talking here about God the Creator; his God is much more immediate and immanent. He does not search for God beyond the mists of time; life itself is the experience and manifestation of divinity. “A shout in the street, that’s God.” (St. Joyce, 1250 years later) 

Dallan writes (in part):

Be thou my vision, O Lord of my heart;

Naught be all else to me save that thou art.

Thou my best thought by day and by night;

Waking or sleeping, thy presence my light.

Be thou my wisdom, and thou my true Word;

I ever with thee and thou with me, Lord…

Be thou my breastplate, my sword for the fight;

Be thou my dignity, thou my delight…

Heart of my heart, whatever befall,

Still be my vision, O Ruler of all.

My relationship to God is not in the least bit remote. God and I share a common structure. God is my foundation, my scaffolding, my logos. God is in every nook and cranny of my being; God permeates me. Enriched (hopefully) by this insight, we can read the Gospel of John with renewed awe:

“I am in the Father and you in me and I in you.” (14: 20)