The argument from consciousness for the existence of God: The case of J. P. Moreland

Some of the arguments for the existence of God are driven from the claim that explanations which are based on natural cause and effect do not sufficiently explain the relevant phenomena. The nature of the consciousness is one of the significant phenomena that still remains a mystery at the present time. Two essential rival worldviews exist on consciousness: naturalism and theism. Naturalistic approaches try to explain consciousness as a natural phenomenon, while many theist philosophers argue that there must be a supernatural cause and a personal explanation for it by pointing out that a naturalistic explanation of consciousness is not possible. The argument from consciousness as an evidence for the existence of God is also an important argument based on this approach. In this study, the argument from consciousness has been discussed on the basis of two arguments that James Porter Moreland puts forward by the deductive method. There are two important claims for the main lines of these arguments: First, a dualist position is adopted by claiming that non-physical mental states exist. Second, it is claimed that there is no naturalistic explanation for these mental states or their relationship to physical states. For this reason, in this study, first of all, naturalism and the basic components that make up the naturalist explanation are discussed in order to better understand these two important claims. Following this analysis, the possibility of dualism as a live option, which is not considered much in today's philosophy of mind, is evaluated. Then, the argument from consciousness introduced by Moreland, which is the main subject of this study, is evaluated by discussing its premises in detail. As a result, the study concludes that the argument from consciousness introduced by Moreland is successful against the opposing view, and discusses whether a stronger version of the consciousness argument may be possible.