that [...] everything we perceive as matter is merely constructed of non-solid energy.
Well, it's constructed of mass-energy.
But if you ever fall out of a third floor window (though I hope you won't), you'll find things are solid enough.
"What we perceive as our physical material world, is really not physical or material at all, in fact, it is far from it."
That's an overdramatic presentation. Yes, at a quantum level this argument works. But we don't perceive the world at a quantum level. Our perceptions of the world have evolved in favor of our survival and propagation on the macro scale, and work very well, as the fact you were able to type your post and I was able to read it will testify.
To underline the point, it's still an open question whether any part of our brain functions require quantum physics to explain; last time I looked there were no known examples. And a claim maybe a decade ago that a particular function in the eye of a particular species of bird worked by a quantum effect seems to have dropped off the radar.
One may conclude that we are individual observers that are involved in creating our own reality and that the universe is a perceived construct in our consciousness.
I'm not at all clear how that follows from the observation that all things are, in the final analysis, related to quantum functions at the very very small level.
The macro world, our world, is as it is, and works very much as we perceive it ─ not just for us, but for all forms of life, from viruses to humans and shortly to intelligent machines.
what role does our ever elusive consciousness play in this?
As ever, it depends how you define consciousness. But basically the macro environment has allowed biology to exist, evolution to happen, and consciousness to result. at the very least in one species.
(I seem to remember that Roger Penrose, in the original
The Emperor's New Mind, argued that consciousness / self was explained by unspecified quantum processes in 'microtubules'. To put it politely, that's not an accepted view.)
What are the spiritual/religious implications?
Since the latter 19th century, some people have tried to place God in other dimensions, in quantum interstices, and in other corners of physics. Gods exist as mental constructs, and do their best work (as well as their worst) in that form; and in my personal view it would be a mistake (if you were a believer) to reduce God to a superscientist, since it takes away the mystery that's an essential part of the aura and attraction.
