Wednesday, June 03, 2009

Does biological life have a purpose?

This is a fascinating article from Rod Dreher.

That was the fundamental question raised by this morning's lecture from Simon Conway Morris, a Cambridge professor of evolutionary paleobiology. To cut to the chase: he didn't answer it definitively, because, he says, we don't have the evidence to draw such a conclusion. But he did present an evolutionary case for why there might be design in nature. Now, he was very, very clear at several points to say that he is not an exponent of Intelligent Design, and in fact he believes the ID crowd has it wrong. The point he wanted us to take away was that Darwinian evolution (which he accepts as a valid mechanism for describing how life develops over time) is presented to the general public today as if it were a complete theory, when in fact there's a lot more to be said about it, and deeper questions to be explored within its context. SCM criticized as short-sighted secular materialists who want to dismiss those interested in questions of ultimate concern and purpose behind the material universe.


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