Religion
In reply to the discussion: Free will and consciousness [View all]cpwm17
(3,829 posts)I'll try again.
At point A you're not thinking about raising your arm, though perhaps you've been presented with a situation that might make you motivated to think of a random activity. At point B the thought to raise your arm enters your mind. At point C you raise your arm.
Where did that thought come from at point B to raise your arm? Up to that point no such thought was in you consciousness. Your consciousness at point B couldn't have chosen to to raise your mind since your consciousness hadn't thought of it yet. That thought had to have entered your consciousness from some place other than your consciousness.
Your consciousness, before point B, was aware of a situation that made it appropriate to think about raising your arm. The great majority of what goes on inside our brains are outside of consciousness, but evolution has made our brains work in our favor. Your non-conscious brain outputted to your consciousness an appropriate response, which was a thought to raise your arm.
Consciousness has no means to originate thoughts in our impossibly complex brains. Consciousness is very complicated brain processes, which science knows little about. The physical brain processes create consciousness and all of the other brain activities. Consciousness is a product (output) along with the rest of our brain activities. Consciousness isn't a thing that controls out brains; our brains make our conscious-selves.