Philosophy--The Hard Questions

 What came or was before the big bang? Why is there something rather than nothing? Does the universe exist only because we are conscious of it? 

Consciousness

A number of past and current philosophers contend that consciousness is what always was and will be, the "before" the universe. In other words, consciousness is God. If we define "nothing" as lacking space, time, and material, then it seems that consciousness could well be the "nothing" that came before. Yet so could many other brain-evoked universal non-material nouns such as love, fear, apprehension, intelligence, etc.

"I propose that consciousness can be defined as a particular state of awareness, characterised by a curious recursiveness in which individuals are not only aware, but aware that they are aware." - David P Barash, https://aeon.co/essays/the-self-conscious-animal-how-human-minds-evolved; 2013

 To be aware that we are aware can be painful. Would it not be more comfortable to feel bad without knowing that we feel bad? Actually, could we even feel bad if we were not aware of feeling bad? Can the two be separated--1) feeling bad and 2) being aware of feeling bad? If consciousness is a product of evolution, then it would have arisen and grown as a result of proving itself to be better than worse for humans. Natural selection without consciousness would give precedence to the more immediate than to longer term, thus, in the longer term be detrimental. Satisfying hunger by the excessive consumption of fatty, sugary foods results in short-term pleasure but eventual bodily distress. Consciousness could well have grown from necessity. And socially, if we were unaware of our effects on others, we would be quite boorish.

If not evolutionary, then it is inherent to the material brain and/or ethereal thought. 

The argument for a God of a type

In The Life of the Cosmos (1999), the physicist Lee Smolin has estimated that, taking into account all of the fine-tuning examples considered, the chance of life existing in the Universe is 1 in 10229, from which he concludes:

In my opinion, a probability this tiny is not something we can let go unexplained. Luck will certainly not do here; we need some rational explanation of how something this unlikely turned out to be the case.

In my opinion, there could be another possibility. Could it be that if the fine-tuning of the strong nuclear force, chemical complexity, and gravity had been different by enough to not allow life as we know it, a life different than we know, yet life, would instead have evolved?

The evidence for a biblical God or a multiverse is incomplete and what there is, is arguable.

Tononi’s theory that both differentiation and integration are required for consciousness is known as integrated information theory (IIT).

https://aeon.co/essays/to-say-what-consciousness-is-science-explores-where-it-isnt

"First, each conscious experience is specific. Your experience of the colour blue is what it is, in part, because blue is not yellow. If you had never seen any colour other than blue, you would most likely have no concept or experience of colour. Likewise, if all food tasted exactly the same, taste experiences would have no meaning, and vanish. This requirement that each conscious experience must be specific is known as differentiation.

"But, at the same time, consciousness is integrated. This means that, although objects in consciousness have different qualities, we never experience each quality separately. When you see a basketball whiz towards you, its colour, shape and motion are bound together into a coherent whole. During a game, you’re never aware of the ball’s orange colour independently of its round shape or its fast motion. By the same token, you don’t have separate experiences of your right and your left visual fields – they are interdependent as a whole visual scene.

"Tononi identified differentiation and integration as two essential features of consciousness. And so, just as the essential features of life might lead a scientist to infer the existence of DNA, the essential features of consciousness led Tononi to infer the physical properties of a conscious system."

What is Time? Time is imaginary, implied from awareness of motion and change. Without such awareness we would lack consciousness. Tensed time would not exist. We would be aware only the present.