Book Review: Simon Conway Morris, The Runes of Evolution – How the Universe Became Self-Aware

[Sy_Garte]

@jstump

@jstump

Some people think the phenomenon of convergent evolution is the biological version of fine tuning. What do you think about it?

I think that is very definite possibility. But there are some important differences between the fine tuning of cosmology and physics, and that of biology. The major one is that we have no answer (and might never have one outside of theism) for the fine tuning of the physical constants. In biology, many potential fine tuning examples are explainable from evolutionary theory. The perfect rate of mutation to allow for evolution, but also maintain the integrity of organisms is one example.

So the question for convergence is what is the mechanism. One answer has been simply (as I believe Roger said) that natural selection allows for certain characteristics that fit a limited number of available niches. Some neo Darwinians will use that one. I happen to believe (and I think Conway Morris does also) that answer is deeper than that. Fine tuning is one possibility, or there is something about the way life first developed on this planet that included a large degree of constraint (which is the mirror image of convergence) in evolutionary directions. Either way, there is no doubt a great deal of material here for theological reflection.

[Relates (Roger A. Sawtelle)]

@Sy_Garte

Some people think the phenomenon of convergent evolution is the biological version of fine tuning. What do you think about it?

I think that convergent evolution is quite similar to fine tuning. Fine tuning is based on the fact that the universe and the planet earth have what seems to be the exact conditions necessary for the creation and fulfillment of intelligent life.

Ecological evolution point to the fact that the earth and its environment developed in just the right way for human life to come into existence. We are learning that life on earth did not develop in a straight line, but had ups and downs, zigs and zags, so it seems that the creation by evolution is even more remarkable than fine tuning. (See A New History of Life)

In either case God created the environment that made human life possible and gently nursed it into reality. God did not force it into existence in a hostile environment, as Darwin thought.