> This is a question I asked a few months ago and could not myself answer. Someone here is bound to come up with a better solution than I. I think it can only be answered by one who believes in free will and no soul.

Well, I'll give it a shot. I believe in free will, but I don't think I can honestly say that I don't believe in a soul. Well, I just put that aside for the moment then.

> If one does not believe in a soul and does not invoke a hitherto unknown principle, the consciousness must reside within the physical human body.

Okay. I guess I can agree with that statement. (at least until I'm done this post, I hope)

>If consciousness can be effected through complex reactions of matter, all matter must be at least infinitesimally self-aware. How then should this affect the way we treat all matter, animate or otherwise?

First, let me try to clarify. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I think what you're saying is that "Since some matter, when put through complex reactions, yeild conciousness. Therefore ALL matter must have some consciousness."

Okay. If this is the case, consider this. Some matter (for this argument, I'll use Carbon), when put through complex reactions (In this case, expremes of heat and presure), yeild diamond. Therefore, ALL matter must have some diamond. Is this a logically correct statement? No. The second statement does not follow the first. It requires *certain* matter under *certain* conditions for the desired result. If the matter differs or the conditions differ, then you do not have trace of diamond, nor do you have anything even LIKE a diamond (unless, I guess, the conditions differ only slightly).

Now, to relate back to your orginal question, I believe that consciousness is something that a thing either has or it does not have, and unless certain conditions are met then there is not consciousness at all. Therefore, I do not believe that all matter is self-aware, and therefore there is no need to change the way that we treat matter.

Feel free to try and poke holes in this argument, and I'll see if I can clear it up for both of us.

> gab"Sometimes I think I was made to speak a different language. Reading this post has me convinced."by

-Ka"Not Christain, but I guess not really Atheist either...."z!