The Evolution of Life

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john carroll: We've talked about evolution several times on the podcast in this calendar year 20 22. He says there are huge controversies within the field over how it works. Today's guest is a distinguished paleontoloy ist and evolutionary biologist who is very much on the adaptationist side of things, he says. i think it's fair to say that unlike most evolutionary biologists, simon conway morris is quite card-carrying religious believer,. John Car Carroll: It's always an interesting one to come across with someone who really understands what they're doing.

Evolution by natural selection is one of the rare scientific theories that resonates within the wider culture as much as it does within science. But as much as people know about evolution, we also find the growth of corresponding myths. Simon Conway Morris is a paleontologist and evolutionary biologist who’s new book is From Extraterrestrials to Animal Minds: Six Myths of Evolution. He is known as a defender of evolutionary convergence and adaptationism — even when there is a mass extinction, he argues, the resulting shake-up simply accelerates the developments evolution would have made anyway. We talk about this, and also about the possible role of God in an evolutionary worldview.

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Simon Conway Morris received his Ph.D. in geology from the University of Cambridge. He is currently an emeritus professor of evolutionary paleobiology in the Department of Earth Sciences at Cambridge. Among his awards are the Walcott Medal of the National Academy of Sciences and the Lyell Medal of the Geological Society of London.

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