I agree that “something very strange is going on here”.
Science’s demand for strict materialism is part of the problem and not part of the solution.
Consciousness may well permeate many things that we believe have no consciousness—and may be an integral part of all that is...
I can’t say that my Faith doesn’t cloud my judgement with bias. But the more I ponder it sure does seem like “I knew you before you were born...” rings true. Which is still unsettling because if a photon leaving a star billions of years ago knew where my retina wold be billions of years later it sort of destroys my concept of free will. I guess the answer would be “all that photon knew was it had an ‘address’ of another atom that was it’s destination” and it is just randomness that atom ended up incorporated into my retina. This is all starting to give me a headache.
Good post. I agree. Philosopyical materialism is a self-limiting problem. Everything else is thus either defined solely in material terms or ignored entirely.