Mortimer: Do you think that over the course of evolution, there is a tendency towards more overall complexity in the biosphere? Mortimer: I don't. A, complexity is deceptive. And something which, you know, looks exceedingly complex, like a single celled organism, at one level, is more complex, if you like. The degree of interpenetration of molecular pathways of once separate species of bacteria, i is staggering. There is reason to think that that's more or less reached the limit what is possible.
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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