> How is "consciousness" not just a modern word for "soul", minus the afterlife stuff? There's actually an interesting analog with intelligent design. In both

> How is "consciousness" not just a modern word for "soul", minus the afterlife stuff? There's actually an interesting analog with intelligent design. In both cases (evolution, the brain) it's clear that what's happening is that the emergent properties from incredibly complex systems is creating surprisingly complex results (surprisingly complex to the average observer). In both cases this bothers people because it means that humans aren't anything particularly special (just matter that happens to go through certain processes), and because it's hard for them to grasp the scale and complexity of the systems involved. So an invisible non-material explanation is theorized instead which sets humanity above the "mere" material world.