Quote Originally Posted by Burney View Post
Sorry, but wishy-washy phrases such as ‘the mysteries of consciousness’ set alarm bells ringing. What mysteries? Our ‘consciousness’ is simply a series of biochemical reactions to which we imbue undue significance. If you’re that interested in it, I suggest the answers will be found in science, not ‘spirituality’.
But consciousness is a mystery. That there is ultimately a scientific meaning to it doesn't stop it being mysterious or highly significant. And is it certainly biochemical? I have argued with someone who insists that we cannot rule out a sophisticated electronic intelligence acquiring consciousness.

And if you think, as you indicated earlier, that a belief in god is a perfectly natural response to seeking patterns of order in a chaotic universe, it isn't unreasonable that the process of consciousness reflecting upon itself (meta-consciousness) would be part of that belief, based in the feeling of detachment from the material body that such reflection can cause. I suspect that this sense of detachment may have been the 'spirituality' that Monty was alluding to in his clumsily-constructed post.