I was listening to an interview with Edward Tabash on his argument "Why There Really Cannot Be a God". His argument is very different from those normally proposed. His argument, paraphrased and modified slightly, is that conscious states are dependent upon brain states. Conscious states are either logically identical to brain states (the identity thesis) or conscious states are functionally dependent upon brain states (functionalism); that is, conscious states are caused by neural functions and any system that performs functions identical to neural states will have conscious states (of a certain type). (Of course less complex neural states will entail less complex conscious states. Just look at us compared to cats. We can play chess; they cannot but cats are conscious entities. Furthermore, more complex neural functions will most likely entail more complex conscious states.) A deity lacks neural states by definition. Therefore, it is impossible for a deity to be a conscious entity.


Of course his conclusion does not exactly follow without assuming the identity thesis is true and not functionalism. Currently, functionalism is the leading hypothesis. So it is still theoretically possible for there to be a deity that is a conscious entity, but that entity must have functional states equivalent to neural states for that entity to be conscious. Note I left out the issue of complexity. If the entity posses conscious states more complex than ours then the functional states that cause them are probably more complex than our functional states. It is hard to determine how a non-physical entity can have functional states that cause conscious states and furthermore how causation would even work in non-physical systems.




I thought Peter and Adastra would enjoy this one.