No matter how you look at the world, it’s clear there’s life here. Life seems to be rare in the universe, but it’s abundant here. It’s hard for us to imagine a world without life because imagination requires consciousness and consciousness seems to require life. Can a star be conscious? Well, maybe. I suppose I don’t know whether consciousness requires life but I can say that life is, in some way, a conduit for consciousness.
You are conscious. So am I. So are trees, fungi, beetles, and dogs, but in different ways than us. Plenty of people don’t think that’s true, but just ask any indigenous culture. There’s reverence for creation because creation is what we are–we are part of the world, not separate from it. Everything in us, from our bones to our brains, comes from the earth. Where consciousness or the soul comes from is unknown, but we came from the living things of earth, and living things have consciousness. Monkeys are conscious of how their behaviors affect their place in the social hierarchy. Plants bends towards sunlight instead of shade. Scientific materialism can’t explain how indigenous elders communicate with trees, so they say it isn’t possible. Do you believe them?
We come from the earth. We are the sum total of all our ancestors put together, including the ones who weren’t conscious (like, our single-celled relatives of 4 billion years ago). Does life beget consciousness? What about complex life? Is there a certain anatomical feature that generates consciousness, like the hind part of our brainstem, or our occipital lobe, or is consciousness merely electrical impulses interacting with organic life forms?
I have only a lifetime to ask and reflect on these questions, no answers. The known is overrated. The world is far bigger than our minds can imagine–but why not at least try?