Simon Conway Morris - Life, Destiny, and Evolution

Evolutionary convergence describes the development in separate species of astonishingly similar solutions to life's challenges. The so-called camera eye, for instance, evolved independently in the human, the squid, and the octopus—three quite divergent species. The elephant and the sperm whale have amazingly similar social systems. To renowned paleobiologist Simon Conway Morris, these and the thousands of examples of evolutionary convergences he has documented in his career all point to a provocative directionality in the evolution of life in our universe.

In this discussion with EnlightenNext's Ross Robertson, Conway Morris, sometimes referred to as an “Evolutionary Creationist,” refutes both the overt materialism of Neo-Darwinism and the flawed logic of intelligent Design. In his view, life is evolving with directionality as part of a process neither random nor aimless, not controlled by an unseen, all-knowing hand, but subject to the known—and yet-to-be-discovered—laws that harness all of creation. Conway Morris passionately refutes the polarized state of the evolution debate today. In its place he presents a perspective that is at once rigorous, balanced, and open-minded. He decries the arrogance of the scientific-materialist position, and debunks the mythological underpinnings of Creationism as well as the fuzzy logic of Intelligent Design. In Conway Morris's view, there IS a truth, but it is one that we can never see completely—a viewpoint he finds more consistent with the reality of what's going on than the notion that through the exercise of reason we might one day uncover the ultimate secrets of the universe.

BIO

Simon Conway Morris holds an ad hominem Chair in Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge. A Fellow of St John's College, and also of the Royal Society, Conway Morris took his first degree at the University of Bristol. His research interests include the study of Burgess Shale-type faunas, the first appearance of skeletons, and the Cambrian explosion.

He is published in Nature and Cell, among other peer-reviewed journals, and is the author of two books, The Crucible of Creation and Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe. His interests extend to the science/religion debate and the public understanding of science, the latter including television appearances in the 1996 Royal Institution Christmas Lectures, as well as involvement in the National Geographic channel's Alien Worlds.