"An immensely stimulating book. It draws you in with bold hypotheses and original perspectives. I was inspired to take a fresh look at my work and see if could apply some of the ideas in my lab."
--Ard Louis, Rudolf Peierls Centre for Theoretical Physics, University of Oxford, UK
Simon Conway Morris has delivered the next installment of his and others' work and thinking on the subject of evolutionary convergences. It is titled, The Deep Structure of Biology: Is Convergence Sufficiently Ubiquitous to Give a Directional Signal? This volume is a compendium of articles addressing the question of whether the phenomenon of convergence of form and function plays a more universal and central role in the evolution of life forms on Earth--and whether evolutionary "direction" or "purpose," by some definition, can be inferred from it.
Authors representing interests as varied as micro-biology and botany to human evolution and metaphysics offer a range of views on these basic questions and whether there results a "deeper structure," even lawfulness, in the world of biology. These propositions were more comprehensively presented and defended by Conway Morris in his 2003 book, audaciously titled, Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe.
Dr. Conway Morris is Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge, UK. His pioneering work on the Cambrian fauna and "explosion" (of life and species, that is) based on the Burgess Shale fossils was the subject of his 1998 book, The Crucible of Creation. It earned him world-wide professional recognition and respect. He is a member of the Royal Society and has been the recipient of many professional awards and medals. (And I look forward to his next book, Darwin's Compass.)
But his work on evolutionary convergences has been more controversial, running against the established orthodoxy of evolutionary science's mainstream--from the random-process proponents such as the late Stephen Jay Gould (Wonderful Life and The Structure of Evolutionary Theory), to the anti-theists led by Richard Dawkins (The Selfish Gene; The Blind Watchmaker; and The God Delusion) and Daniel Dennett (Darwin's Dangerous Idea and Breaking the Spell). While most all evolutionary scientists recognize the operation of evolutionary convergences to some extent, relatively few as yet appear willing to entertain the notion that it is as central and directing of evolutionary processes as Conway Morris proposes.
By "convergences" is meant the tendency of evolving forms to find the same or very similar evolutionary solutions or advancements regardless of when or on what branch of the evolutionary tree the life form evolves. Overworked examples would include camera eyes and various types of limbs for mobility and manipulation, among many others. Convergences are, for the most part, a function of the constraints and contingencies of Earth's environment and the creative aspects of the genetic transmission process. And Conway Morris, a versatile, multi-disciplinary scientist, explores in Life's Solution the role of genetics, but also just how limiting the universe and the Earth are: the limited types of elements in the universe, the probable limitation of life to carbon-based forms, the narrow tolerances for supporting life on Earth or anywhere else in the universe, and the many evolving, shaping determinants of survival and function. Most controversial, perhaps, is his proposition that sentience and cognition are also convergent solutions, and that something like intelligent humans would evolve regardless of how many times you rerun the evolutionary process of life.
Some of the skepticism or resistance is likely just the normal and reasonable process of the scientific ship turning slowly, the need for more evidence and more time for greater numbers of respected voices to recognize the merit of such a significant change in evolutionary thinking. Of course, some of those voices also have vested professional interests in research and publications based on the current orthodoxy. But others, primarily the anti-theists, are fearful that any move toward the notion of "direction" or "purpose" greases a slippery slope into broader acceptance of theistic evolution, a new refuge for the "intelligent design" proponents, and into the embrace of the great unwashed throngs of religious folks. And to make Conway Morris' task more sensitive, he is a confessing Christian and member of the Anglican church.
Regardless, the skeptics and anti-theists will still take a measure of comfort in the fact that however provocative this research and thinking, however appealing its more deterministic mechanisms to people of faith, it still takes us no closer to proving or disproving the existence of God. Yet, it nonetheless reflects more how we faithful might envision how a creative Author Spirit or God might order, direct, and carry out His purposes for creation. I conclude on this point as I did in my essay, What God?:
“And so I am left with my epiphanies, still asking, what could be more miraculous and awe-inspiring, more beautiful, more humbling, than the complexities and unfathomable realities of evolutionary mechanisms and the progress of life? How else than through these evolving biochemical, genetic, social and psychological processes might all of creation have moved continually upward toward sentience and cognition, curiosity and questioning, the pursuit of truth and identity? For what other purpose might we be brought face to face with the history of the development of creation, and those transcendent apprehensions that lead us, than to seek the sensed Author and understandings of why we are now here?"
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