Re: News: Is there anybody out there?

"Anthony Campbell" <ac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote in message
news:fv7inr$2g5i$1@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
On 2008-04-28, feedbackdroid <feedbackdroid@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:


I'm glad you brought this up. Tim Tyler, who inhabited this forum a
couple of years ago, is now over on comp.ai.philosophy pushing,
amongst other things, the "inevitiability of human life" and
intelligence, and using Simon Conway Morris as his "authority" ... to
wit: "Anyhow, Conway-Morris is the cannonical antidote to those who
think chance rules in evolution: ", etc...

http://groups.google.com/group/comp.ai.philosophy/browse_frm/thread/c70c6f2a9df28bbf
[starting about msg #32]

He's also pushing the idea that evolution is deterministic, based
upon ...
============
New Findings Confirm Darwin's Theory: Evolution Not Random

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/01/080118134531.htm

Evolution Is Deterministic, Not Random, Biologists Conclude From
Multi-species Study

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2007/11/071119123929.htm
=============

What's the opinion of this stuff, including Conway Morris, in the
science/evolution community? Sounds pretty much left field.


I reviewed Conway Morris's book "Life's Solution: Inevitable Humans in a
Lonely Universe" a couple of years ago (review is on my site). He is of
course a highly respected biologist and a committed Darwinian, but he
nevertheless seems to wish to apply a theological gloss to evolution. It
would be wrong to call this a hidden agenda, because he is quite open
about it. His final chapter is called "Towards a theology of evolution?"
and contains a frank recommendation to acknowledge the validity of the
Book of Genesis. "The assumption that the world has some meaning which
is linked to our own calling as the only morally responsible beings in
the world, is an important example of the supernatural aspect of
experience which Christian interpretations of the universe explore and
develop."

--
Anthony Campbell - ac@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
Microsoft-free zone - Using Debian GNU/Linux
http://www.acampbell.org.uk (blog, book reviews,
on-line books and sceptical articles)


I lost interest in Conway Morris when I realised that basically he was a
Christian fundamentalist.



.

Relevant Pages

  • Book review: Lifes Solution (Simon Conway Morris)
    ... brain and mind, cosmology, cycling, death and dying, evolution, fiction, ... views Conway Morris disagrees profoundly. ... anything resembling humans would emerge. ... life will appear and will almost certainly be quite similar to humans. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Article: On the Great Chain of Being
    ... > "Convergent evolution also inspired the Cambridge geologist ... > Simon Conway Morris, ... > Inevitable Humans in a Lonely Universe" presents exactly the ... evolution at any point is a function of environmental conditions. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Article: On the Great Chain of Being
    ... >> Peter Medewar isn't around to write a review of the Conway Morris ... and evolution will repeatedly find those optima. ... Although the molecules that are employed to build DNA are relatively ... nothing but molecular biology. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Article: On the Great Chain of Being
    ... "Convergent evolution also inspired the Cambridge geologist ... Simon Conway Morris, ... Richard Dawkins in "The Ancestor's Tale" p. 492 ... Here's what Medewar said about Teilhard de Chardin. ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)
  • Re: Book review: The Plausibility of Life (Marc W. Kirschner and John C. Gerhart) (CORRECTED VERSION
    ... Book review by Anthony Campbell. ... Critics of evolution, including advocates of "intelligent design", often ... biology that only became available at the end of the twentieth century. ... There are several hundred "core processes" that generate the anatomy, ...
    (sci.bio.evolution)