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Does mind derive from mindless matter?

Does mind derive from mindless matter?

Last updated on: August 23, 2026 at 8:49 pm by Dan Peterson

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Does mind derive from mindless matter? 2026-08-23T20:49:06-06:00 Dan Peterson

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An actual photograph of the Big Bang as it was seen above Walt Disney World Resort, in Orlando, Florida, approximately 13.7 billion years ago. Color photos of the Big Bang are very rare. (Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

Some time ago, I was sent a copy of a 2026 self-published book by Evan Farr Smith, entitled Machines without Makers. I’ve been enjoying it, and I want to share with you some passages that, in my opinion, nicely summarized part of an issue that interests me:

If intelligence is the product of non-intelligence, then awareness must come from processes that contain no awareness at all. That is not something we observe anywhere. (16)

Here, the author refers in footnote 21 to Thomas Nagel, Mind and Cosmos: Why the Materialist Neo-Darwinian Conception of Nature is Almost Certainly False [Oxford University Press, 2012: “Argues that consciousness, cognition, and value are not adequately explained by purely material and non-intentional processes, highlighting the difficulty of accounting for awareness through non-aware physical systems.”

Nagel, it should noted, is University Professor of Philosophy and Law Emeritus at New York University and an atheist. But back to Evan Farr Smith, who has certainly read some very important books:

Attempts to reduce intelligence to biology run into the same problem. They point to the brain and show that brain activity and conscious experience occur together. That is true. But it is not an explanation. It is a correlation. Seeing two things happen together does not prove that one produces the other. It only shows that they are connected. That connection is often treated as proof. It is not.

And in some cases, even that connection becomes difficult to maintain. There are documented reports of near-death experiences where individuals describe clear awareness during periods when normal brain function is severely reduced or completely absent. Patients who were unresponsive or ion cardiac arrest have later described details of their surroundings, including events that occurred during medical procedures. These accounts are often dismissed, but dismissal is not an explanation. Ignoring a problem does not solve it.

The question is simple. If the brain produces consciousness, how does clear awareness occur when the brain is not functioning? There is no clear answer. But there is a problem.

These observations do not provide a complete theory of consciousness, but they do expose a limitation. They show that reducing intelligence to biological processes does not fully account for what is being observed. They point to something that is not easily contained within a purely material explanation. (16-17)

In footnote 24, on page 17, the author cites what he describes as a 1931 lecture by the Nobel laureate physicist Max Planck — the originator of quantum theory and one of the principal founders of modern physics — entitled “The Nature of Matter.” Evan Farr Smith summarizes the lecture, which I have not yet read myself, as follows: “Argues that consciousness is fundamental and that matter derives from a deeper underlying reality, suggesting that mind is not produced by matter but instead underlies and informs it.”

In this, Smith and Planck seem to be taking a position toward which I myself have been leaning for quite a few years now, namely that mind is irreducible, fundamental, as basic a constituent of the universe as matter is.

As I say, I have not yet seen “The Nature of Matter” but, curious, I asked AI about it, and this, in relevant part, is the result that I received:

In “The Nature of Matter” (an influential 1944 statement often attributed to a lecture in Florence), German physicist Max Planck asserted that “there is no matter as such.” He concluded that all matter originates from a conscious, intelligent mind acting as the matrix and fundamental force holding atoms together.

Core Concepts on Matter and Consciousness

Consciousness as Primary: Planck stated that he regarded consciousness as fundamental and matter as derivative from it. . . .

The Role of Force and Vibration: He argued that matter only exists through a force that brings atomic particles to vibration and holds the atomic structure together.

A Conscious Mind: Behind this governing force, Planck maintained that we must assume the existence of a conscious, intelligent Mind.

Scientific Context . . .

Philosophical Shift: Late in life, his decades of grappling with the implications of quantum behavior led him away from strict materialism toward a view where the universe resembles a thought more than a machine.

In answer to my question about its authenticity, AI gives the original German title of the purported lecture as “Das Wesen der Materie” and records some doubt about it, although “[its] text resides in the Max Planck Society Archive (signature AMPG, Va. Abt., Rep. 11, No. 1797) as a single, undated, and unsigned typewritten document claiming to be a speech from a 1940s congress in Florence.” More important, in my view, is the fact that “while the Florence speech text is unverified, Planck did frequently write and lecture on the compatibility of science and religion, famously maintaining that a rational order exists in the universe, and stating elsewhere (such as in his 1931 interview with The Observer) that he regarded “consciousness as fundamental” and “matter as derivative from consciousness.”” Which is, after all, pretty much what he is supposed to have said in “The Nature of Matter.” I wonder whether that 1931 interview was somehow transformed into a 1931 lecture.

The J. Reuben Clark Law School at Brigham Young University
(Wikimedia Commons public domain image)

You may have heard about the lawsuit that was recently filed against John Dehlin and his Mormon Stories podcast by attorneys representing the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. It’s quite controversial, and wildly conflicting claims are being made about it. Here is a recent statement from the Church itself about what it considers the primary issue in the case: “Church says trademark lawsuit is about eliminating confusion caused by podcaster: Did John Dehlin commit the cardinal sin of trademark law? ‘He can use Mormon,’ Church of Jesus Christ says in new court filing”

Dante and his guide, the ancient Roman poet Virgil, contemplate the State of Utah on assignment from WalletHub. (Rafael Flores [d. 1886], “Dante y Virgilio visitando el Infierno” [Wikimedia Commons public domain image])

WalletHub recently ranked Utah the worst state in the Union for women. Great stuff from the Christopher Hitchens Memorial “How Religion Poisons Everything” File™, right? If you want more detail about how hellish my adopted home state is, you’ll want to steel yourself to see the appalling revelations given in this article, written by Jenet Jacob Erickson: “Opinion: Why WalletHub’s ‘Worst State for Women’ ranking misses the mark on Utah: The narrow formula rewards female wage-earning while ignoring how strong marriages, lower poverty, and family choices shape women’s well-being relative to men”

If you’re looking for a single image that will effectively convey the baleful impact on society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, this one may well be it. Plainly, Utard — where vast mindless herds of Morgbots or Mor(m)ons predominate — is a kind of hellscape for women and children.

I don’t believe that I’ve shared this seventeen-minute video before, and I don’t agree with quite everything in it. But I think that it’s well done and very interesting, and it will give a real and vividly visual sense of why Utah is, arguably, a prime Hitchens File exhibit of the evils wrought by theism and theists: “Why Utah Is the Opposite of Every U.S. State”

Alas, though, the religious fanatics who dominate Utah are seeking to spread their wickedness even beyond the state’s boundaries. Consider carefully, for example, these two links, which are also drawn from the Hitchens File:

History and Religion

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