Causality and the Consciousness
Montagne McDonald
Cause - noun - Latin: causa - Anything producing an effect or result.
Causality - noun - The interrelation or principle of cause and effect.
Taken from Webster's New World Dictionary
The principle of cause and effect is widely known and accepted. Why shouldn't it be? Nature itself proves the principle to be true. To every effect, there was a cause. The two cannot be separated. The principle has been proven to be immutable. Everything we see in nature and everything we experience in society and even in the choices we make, has a cause and effect. A bird is alive because it has parents that produced it, a child fails a class because he did not study, a marriage ends because of infidelity. You could say it's the same principle that is widely accepted among Christians as reaping and sowing. Well, it is to a point. More precisely, to every omega there is an alpha. All things in nature shows to have a beginning, even those that have not had an end yet. The earth, whether you be an evolutionist or creationist, is agreed to have a beginning. The dispute is in how it began. Was there some random act, an explosion, that birthed our universe and eventually our planet or was there a higher life form that created this universe and this Earth? The debate may rage on and I am in no way joining the fray in this essay. However, in looking at the questions we have about the existence of God or the metaphysical, I can't help but think about the principle that we all hold to be true; cause and effect.
There are many theories about the origin of man and I've heard most of them. However, there is a question that entered my mind and I'm sure it mirrors the questions of others. If the cause of our existence is due to a big bang, millions of years of evolution from slime to fish, to badger, to monkey, to man, what is the cause of our consciousness? Where did it come from? There is a quote from philosopher Rene Descartes that says, "I think, therefore, I am." He was saying, he knows he exists because of his awareness (consciousness). We are natural creatures with awareness of ourselves and others. We also have emotions, character and personality. What caused those things to manifest in us? Simple, natural creation, no matter how we slice it, cannot explain the genesis of our consciousness. These things in us cannot be measured or seen through a microscope. We may be able to study emotions, character and personality in a lab with test subjects but all we could hope to do is understand why we do what we do or act the way we act. We cannot, however, explain through any amount of tests and research where our consciousness came from.
If we are to examine the cause and effect of awareness, we cannot leave of out the possibility of God. I say this because of all the options we have to go on to find the beginning of awareness, God is the only logical choice. Some may disagree and feel that the belief in God is in itself illogical. However, if you bear with me we may be able to shed light on how the belief in God could be in actuality, logical. Imagine that! Causality says that you cannot have an effect without a cause. It stands to reason that there must be a cause to our awareness. God told Moses when he asked God who should he say sent him to the people of ..:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Israel, God said, "Tell them I Am sent me." I Am is a powerful word. It denotes existing. It's in the present tense so it hints to the eternal. It also shows something that we all have; self awareness. This being who spoke to Moses was aware of Himself and aware of others. Jehovah shows in this brief sentence that He has a consciousness. Some may dispute the fact that we have no proof of the validity of the claim that this encounter even happened. My answer is twofold. First, there is no evidence against it, and second, we have an eye witness; Moses himself. He should at least get the benefit of the doubt considering there is no conflicting reports neither historically or archeologically. To be honest, there is no other explanation given concerning awareness that we have to draw from at this time. We have plenty of conflicting reports and evidence for our creation as creatures, yet no other evidence given for our consciousness. The logical conclusion would be that someone had to give us consciousness or we had to have inherited it from someone. Some may disagree on who that is, yet one would be hard pressed to find another explanation outside of a higher power. My belief is that it was God's doing.