ABSTRACT
Consciousness is among the most mystifying features of the cosmos. Colin McGinn claims that its arrival borders on sheer magic because there seems to be no naturalistic explanation for it: ‘How can mere matter originate consciousness? How did evolution convert the water of biological tissue into the wine of consciousness? Consciousness seems like a radical novelty in the universe, not pre gured by the aftereffects of the Big Bang; so how did it contrive to spring into being from what preceded it?’ (McGinn 1999: 13-14). Accordingly some argue that, while nite mental entities may be inexplicable on a naturalist worldview, they may be best explained by theism, thereby furnishing evidence for God’s existence. This chapter will attempt to clarify the argument for God’s existence from nite consciousness (hereafter, AC) and evaluate three alternatives to it.
