Because, says computer scientist and philosopher Bernardo Kastrup, the materialism they are committed to makes no sense and that’s the best they can do:
A Dutch computer scientist and philosopher who has reflected deeply on the mind–matter problem finds himself asking, how can serious scientists or philosophers convince themselves that their own consciousness “doesn’t exist” or is a “mistaken construct”? What, exactly, is thinking the thought that their consciousness doesn’t exist? …
It’s becoming clearer with each passing year that no materialist model of consciousness sheds much light. Just last week, for example, neurosurgeon Michael Egnor pointed out here that splitting a person’s brain—an operation he has done, to control epilepsy—does not split that person’s consciousness: “Patients after split-brain surgery are not split people. They feel the same, act the same, and think the same, for all intents and purposes.”
Egnor also makes a critical distinction that might clear up some confusion: Our consciousness is an illusion in one sense only. And it is not the sense that these materialist philosophers mean. …
“Why would philosophers deny that consciousness is real?” at Mind Matters News
Our consciousness is an illusion only in the sense that the visual screen on which you are reading this post is presenting an illusion of letters on a page. Which doesn’t mean that you aren’t reading it or don’t really understand it or it isn’t there or no one wrote and posted it. But you don’t interact with the electronic equipment or signals that make it possible; you interact only with their result.
Egnor says consciousness is like that. It’s real but we only experience the results.
See also: Scientific American explores panpsychism… respectfully. This is a major change. At one time, a science mag would merely ridicule the idea of a conscious universe. Note: Make no mistake, panpsychism—as Goff elucidates it—is a purely naturalist view (“nothing supernatural or spiritual”). But, unlike the village atheist, he goes on to ask, but then what IS nature? Matter is all there is? But what IS matter? It turns out, no one really knows.
Panpsychism: You are conscious but so is your coffee mug