Consciousness - Cause or Effect?

It appears that life is lived out in the physical world, and everything is a consequence of physical existence, consciousness and cognition included. This implies that everything abstract is a conceptual product of mankind. In other words, abstract concepts exist solely as a matter of our own thoughts. It had been believed that mathematics was such a concept securely tied to the mind of man. Kurt Gödel proved otherwise.

Who was Kurt Gödel?

In 1931, the Austrian born mathematician Kurt Gödel proved that in any axiomatic mathematical system there are propositions that cannot be proved or disproved within the axioms of the system. His work ended years of attempts to establish axioms, which would put the whole of mathematics on an axiomatic basis.

Gödel showed that whatever axiomatic system calculations are based on there will always remain true statements that lie beyond the system's reach. In other words, mathematics is not a finished object, which can be taken to mean the abstract world is already out there, pre-existing in some non-physical state. In effect, he re-wrote the rules for all of science in much the same way Einstein did with his Theory of Relativity. His incompleteness theorems (he had two) showed that nothing is certain concerning the universe.

Gödel's first incompleteness theorem states that any logical system that includes the natural number theory must be incomplete, meaning that the logical system will contain statements that cannot be proven true or false. Thus, any attempt to define the natural numbers will result in theoretical statements that cannot be proven. Every time an axiom is added other true but improvable statements will also come into play. So, if any system is proven consistent then it is inconsistent, which of course is completely irrational and illogical.

Which came first, the abstract or the concrete, which is another way of asking is consciousness is cause or effect?