I have updated my web page on Skeptical Fallacies to include the fallacy: Humans are biological machines that operate strictly according to physical laws.
Humans are more than biological machines that operate strictly according to physical laws.
According to materialism, humans are biological machines and everything about us can be explained by the physical descriptions of the atoms that make up our body and brain. If that were true, there would be no need for consciousness because all the functions of a machine are determined by its physical structure. A machine does not need to be conscious to function. Therefore, according to materialism, consciousness should not have evolved because there is no need for it. If materialism were true, consciousness would not exist. Since you are aware of reading these words, you know that consciousness does exist and therefore materialism is not correct. Humans are more than just biological machines. Materialists will answer this by saying consciousness is an emergent property, or an illusion, or an epi-phenomenon of the brain. These are also fallacies which are explained in the two following sections.
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