By seeing which topics can actually be tested empirically, one learns how science works.

The biochemistry projects are working to determine what causes chemical complexity and where (and how) it has occurred. Among other topics, awardees will be studying non-genomic origins of metabolism, quantum chemistry in counterfactual universes and how the molecules of behavior are fine-tuned in animals. Others are addressing philosophical questions concerning the relationship between physics, chemistry and biology.

The evolutionary projects are examining specific instances of increased complexity in the biosphere, such as the emergence of intelligence. Thus a biologist, a computer scientist and a philosopher (Lenski, Ofria and Pennock) are using computer simulations to model the simplest systems that can detect information in their environment, store it, and employ it in subsequent actions. Employing the resources of palaeobiology—the study of organisms based on the fossil record—Sterelny, Bromham and Calcott are working to understand the emergence of species in the Cambrian Explosion, that short period about 530 million years ago in which a multitude of new life forms exploded onto the scene. Though there is no place for divine purposes in his work, Sterelny notes, “There is as it were natural purpose in the world, and the patterns of natural purpose are the patterns that selection generates.” Selection produces something like “design for the survival of extinction.” If his hypotheses about macro patterns and higher-level selection are borne out, “to that extent you can talk about the design of species as much as you can talk about the design of the beak of the finch.”

Analogous questions can be asked about the evolution of homo sapiens and human culture. Liliana Janik is an archaeologist who studies 7000-year old rock paintings in northern Russia. Using laser beams and virtual reality simulations, she and her team will attempt to reconstruct the development of shamanistic images over time, gaining access to the evolution of human religious responses long before written records exist. “I examine the quest for transcendence through tangible records,” she said. These records “strengthen the arrow that points from human narratives, myths, stories and art” and suggest “a universal human preoccupation with other, deeper dimensions of reality.”

Similarly, Caroline Malone and her Cambridge team are exploring the conditions of spiritual creativity in prehistoric Malta. Extensive burial grounds provide unparalleled access to the evolving religious practices of this relatively isolated island culture in the Neolithic period. Their willingness to make massive investments in religious building, even in times of scarcity, reveals something of humanity’s preoccupation with realms of existence beyond the present one.

Understanding the facts is valuable in itself. Still, in the end one wants to know: what is the significance of this emergence of increasing biological complexity, running from the biochemical level through the evolution of life to the emergence of society and culture? In a final step, scholars must ask how the new data bears on that original question of purpose. The connections are not straightforward or obvious, cautions CTC Chair Burke, for “the emergence of complexity in the natural world is not necessarily theologically significant.” Even raising the question can be dangerous. As Conway Morris notes, “We realized that when you’re looking at things which have an element of speculation, there is that much more risk involved. When one tries to explore the ramifications of that concept [of purpose] in the world around us, one has to be extraordinarily careful.”

Yet how can one avoid at least asking the question? Conway Morris pauses. “Purpose is something which fills all humans; no human lacks a sense of purpose. If you do perceive a wider pattern of any sort, then you’re entitled to ask, well, is there something which is being hinted at which might have some deeper meaning to it? And of course that automatically introduces a metaphysical dimension to the enquiry.”

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