dhw: I'm not saying this gets rid of the soul, because it doesn't offer an explanation of consciousness itself.- > dhw: As for the ideal afterlife, which is our starting point, yes I can see the attractions of your vision. Heaven alone knows how it would all work ... if there's a heaven in the first (second?) place! ... but then we don't even know how this life works, do we?- Great observations! No, we cannot explain consciousness using reductive materialism. And Nagel sees the problem but has no answers, and Darwinists don't see the problem at all. -http://www.evolutionnews.org/2013/02/pummeled_with_p068931.html-But if you follow all the info I'm sending here about the way cells work we are learning how life works and it is so complex it had help in evolving. No chance for chance.