dhw: [i]The subject of this thread is panpsychism, and the relative reasonableness or unreasonableness of the alternative “first causes”.[/i]

DAVID: [i]I have always followed the Kalem principal: the universe appears from the Big Bang theory to have been created. What is created must have a first cause. I chose God.[/i]

I know you did. And I find your choice of an eternal, sourceless, all-knowing, conscious, top-down creative mind no more reasonable/unreasonable than the choice of an eternal and infinite universe (something must have preceded the Big Bang, if it happened) eternally producing energy and matter in an infinite number of combinations until there is one that leads to a rudimentary consciousness which develops bottom-up into life and evolution. I guess that sums it up!