the potential for self- awareness is simply a property of matter

Wal, I don't see as how something not objective is invalid. Most spiritual phenomena is non-objective, of course -- it's tautological that the spirit is subjective because it is the ultimate in subjectivity, the very viewpoint and seat of awareness itself.

As for self-awareness being a property of matter, the proposition strikes me like the farmer who just saw his first giraffe. "Maw, there ain't no such animule!".

Far and strange are the boundaries of non-objective universes, and somewhat uncomfortable sometimes, too.

A