Paul Davies - Does Consciousness Lead to God?

Why does the mystery of consciousness lead some to the existence of God and a spirit world, and others to only the physical world and the physical brain? What is it about consciousness that enables such divergent inferences (from smart folks on both sides)? For those who would like to believe in God, can the mere existence of consciousness help their belief?



Paul Davies is a theoretical physicist, cosmologist and astrobiologist.


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[sodiumsalt]

Living in a Universe that has engineered its own comprehension - Paul Davies. Love it.

[cps_Zen_Run]

Yada, yada, yada, a couple thoughts on physics, then… god. Wtf? So tired of talking apes failing in an attempt to prove deities. Let the gods defend themselves. I’m tossing the mic into the air. Which god wants to go first? Catch.

[dongshengdi]

How can a spiritual being impact a material universe? How can He create matter if God is made of spirit? Quantum Mechanics have explained to us that matter can be influenced by thought, observation, Measurement, etc.

[dongshengdi]

When one creates a computer or the Internet, the computer World or the Internet universe or the CyberWorld, that Creator does not reside inside the computer nor does he reside inside the Internet. That Creator resides outside of our known material universe, outside of our space and time.

[dongshengdi]

Which one is more absurd?
1. nothing created the universe (Big Bang)
2. someone or something created the universe.
(The First Cause)

[divinewind]

Another, just as important question- does conciousness lead to dog?

[SandipChitale]

The "observer" in the statement "the observer plays a significant role in quantum physics" is a very misleading statement in this context. Paul is million times smarter than I am but I have to call him out on that statement. The "observer" does not necessarily mean "conscious" entity. Any macroscopic system that interacts with a quantum system will do. Of course a macroscopic, conscious entity could be an "observer", but not because it is conscious but because it is macroscopic. Entanglement and decoherence are the key. The original experiments were done by people and the word "observer" was used by them. Unfortunately lay people think "conscious" when they hear "observer". And then new age, quantum healing or create your own reality through quantum consciousness thinking happens. The original use of the word "observer" has led to a lot of pseudoscience mischief. Same is true for the case of "god particle" for Higgs Boson.

It is said that "observer" collapses the wave function of a electron passing through two slits. If "observer" were to be Bob and Alice and Bob observed the reading at 12pm and Alice observed the reading next day, does it mean the wave function of that electron collapses twice? That is absurd. The wave function of a quantum object like electron collapses as soon as any macroscopic measuring device interacts with it however feebly. IMO there is confusion in the discussion about quantum experiment between multiple events that happen. The original event of the collapse of the wave function happens as soon as the quantum object like electron interacts with a measuring, detecting device. That event is done at that moment. No conscious entity required. The separate event where by conscious entity such as Bob learns about the recorded reading from the measuring device, potentially after much time later is a separate event from the original event of collapse. And Alice becoming aware of the reading, yet another time is yet another event. BTW the instantaneous collapse of the wave function is just one possible, sloppy interpretation of quantum mechanics. There are newer interpretations of quantum mechanics whereby the so called collapse is not an instantaneous phenomenon but happens over, albeit, short span of time as the interaction with environments spreads out, smears out the decoherence.

The isolated quantum systems are very sensitive and fragile. The isolation from other macroscopic environment (not conscious entities) is very hard to sustain. That is why quantum computers are hard to build as of today - not because there are conscious entities - people in the room but just the non-conscious lab equipment.

[UnderhillKoufax]

Does consciousness lead to myths?! What a ridiculous question.

[xspotbox]

Nothing can influence the past, this guy is a joke, pretending to understand quantum mechanics, but he really doesn't.
Perhaps he was talking about quantum eraser experiment. Light is not material, we can't observe an individual photon, so the flow of light field can be manipulated in a way effects are distributed over the entire apparatus. Then a simple interaction cause entire light fields to collapse, giving the appearance photons were somehow changed in a way result is consistent with normal physics. But that's no time travel into the past, it's just waves and frequencies, it's possible only because nothing real actually gets affected. So Quantum eraser is more of an evidence time travel into the past is not possible.

[PhatLvis]

Consciousness as merely an illusion is absurd. By what means does one experience the illusion?

[arthurwieczorek]

This thing here is unexplained---it's unexplainable. Therefore God must have done it. This is solid proof God exists. My church meets on Sunday at 11:00.

[FredericEJohnson]

Yes, consciousness leads to God. God is everything, the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last.

Genesis 2:7 King James Version (KJV)

“And the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.”

John 1:10 King James Version (KJV)
“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not.”

[albertjackson]

Actually, consciousness does not lead to "God", ignorance leads to any god and astrology.

[zaw]

E= Energy
M= Matter
C= Light
C^2= Consciousness


Our physical matter bodies are made of Photons. Light is not infinite because our bodies die.
Consciousness however, is infinite.


Yes, Consciousness leads to God.
God is an allegory for the Source of All things.
The All.
The All that which contains all.

[davidmjacobson]

Thanks for the video. Volume level on this video is quiet low, though.

[rohin]

It leads to the CUBE aka the 5th dimension.

[Licmebalzutube]

I like his ideas, he makes a lot of sense to me

[iphaze]

I love this idea! One way to think about it could be that as we move through time, the observations we make allow us to unlock new dimensions of existence, which themselves have their own pasts.. and perhaps we inherit those as we move through time. I’m trying really hard not to say “Mandela effect” haha

[dongshengdi]

1. Everything is a result of evolution. (Law of Cause and Effect)
2. Who designed or programmed evolution? Who programmed the Laws of Physics? (Nothing existed before the Big Bang, not even Time)

[arjunratnadev]

simple NO! that's it, no need to make some unnecessary vague discussion about it, even animals are conscious 🙄😒