Almost 150 years since its declaration, Charles Darwin's theory of evolution still causes anger and conniptions among those who prefer to believe, like Archbishop James Ussher, that the Earth was created by God on 23 October 4004 BC, at 9am (which means, of course, that Earth is a Scorpio).
In Life's Solution, Simon Conway Morris, who is Professor of Evolutionary Palaeobiology at the University of Cambridge, is at some pains to distance himself from the "fundamentalist tenets" of those who believe that Darwin's theory still remains to be proven. In his preface, he states bluntly, "Evolution is true, it happens, it is the way the world is, and we too are one of its products," he says, and 'politely' suggests to any creationist who may have read Life's Solution to this point (page xv) that they put the book back on the shelf: "It will do you no good".
The bulk of Conway Morris's book is concerned with building an argument for a kind of 'metaphysics of evolution'. To many in the scientific establishment, the word metaphysics is anathema. But lately, in the work of respected scientists such as Paul Davies, there has been a growing interest in the apparent coherence and directedness of the universe - a fascination with the beauty of the codes that regulate the cosmos, and the very fact that we are aware of them.
Conway Morris questions the usual suspects in this intellectual why-dunnit: the convergent evolution of similar organs, body shapes and behaviours across different species, in different times and places.
Potentially, the ghost that haunts such arguments is Rupert Sheldrake and his theory of morphic resonance, which proposes that there are certain shapes in nature that pre-exist the animals or entities that eventually fit them. Unlike Sheldrake, Conway Morris founds his work firmly on the operation of what he describes as "the strangest of all molecules": DNA.
That humans are somehow more valuable or 'special' in the cosmic scheme of things because of our sentience and complexity is a statement that Conway Morris avoids.
But it surely lurks in the closing sentences of his penultimate chapter: "... the complexity and beauty of 'Life's Solution' can never cease to astound.
None of it presupposes, let alone proves, the existence of God, but all is congruent. For some it will remain as the pointless activity of the blind watchmaker, but others may prefer to remove their dark glasses." This is an extremely valuable book. Its science is exemplary and it manages to organise arguments about evolution and its mysteries in an intelligent and challenging way.
Unfortunately, Conway Morris's language can be a little turgid, and could turn away many non-specialist readers. But the questions he raises are exciting and need to be asked.
