Dear Friends,
It seems to me, evolution could be either random, or by some guiding design. Creationists call it intelligent design. That God designs everything. Meanwhile evolutionists believe in random selection. Evolutionists claim that if you take the components of a three hundred day clock, and throw them into a bin enough times and shake the bin, eventually they will self assemble into a clock. Others have more nuanced views. I’m pretty certain, no matter how many times someone throws components into a bin, a clock will never come out. Though, I have no problem with God designing everything. Even as a deist might believe in some blending of evolution and intelligent design. A clockwork God building a self assembling and evolving clock. Although there may be a better answer yet.
What if Rupert Sheldrake’s controversial Morphic fields exist? I’m no expert on Morphic fields, or anything else for that matter, but my understanding of them is… each species has a morphic field that guides their body design. The design for an ant, isn’t in the ant’s DNA, but resident in the ant’s morphic field. The DNA is the progenitor of the proteins necessary to keep an ant alive. In the same way the morphic field of a human being, designates where our eyes, ears, nose and feet will be. Sheldrake often cites the tested theory, if a rat in London learns a new thing, rats of the same kind elsewhere will learn that thing faster than they otherwise would have. Apparently he claims this ability applies to other species as well. How’s this done? Because learning adds to the map of the morphic field.
Further, what if the Morphic fields are guided by the species collective unconscious? Jung had a theory of the “collective unconscious.” In it he claimed that there is a human collective unconscious where archetypes, trauma and concepts exist. Available to us all on a subconscious level. A kind of id that spans humanity. Like Sheldrake’s morphic field. What if Jung’s collective unconscious is a form of field? Moreover that field interacts with the morphic field? Or is a different terminology for the same phenomenon? If any of these possibilities are true… it opens a whole area of potential. Especially in the area of evolution. Because, if there is evolution, it’s unlikely to be random, but if not guided by the hand of God directly… what about indirectly? By each species morphic field/collective unconscious?
Take the Panda for example. Giant Pandas are omnivores… yet they only eat bamboo. Which barely sustains them. It could be some artifact of their taste buds that bamboo is the most delicious thing imaginable to them. So they would starve before eating something else. Or, there’s a method to their madness. Perhaps, the panda collective unconscious has looked ahead, and predicts bamboo will become a climax species in the near future. (In a million years or so). So hypothetically, the panda collective has decided to force itself to evolve, to eat the plant they anticipate will be a primary food source in the future. Getting a head start on everything else. While this is pure a priori conjecture, it fits the observed world. Though this hypothesis seems difficult to falsify by experiment.
Evolution then would be intentional. The intentional evolution to stay environmentally relevant by each species collective unconscious, mapped onto their morphic field and DNA. The Panda is seeking to generate the proteins needed to efficiently digest bamboo leaves. So in the future it has access to unlimited food. Else the panda may simply love the taste of bamboo leaves over any other leaf, vegetable or meat. There’s probably some merit to Jung’s idea of the collective unconscious. Plus, Sheldrake’s morphic field is an elegant answer to the question of where is species design stored? Though being elegant doesn’t make them right. Yet these ideas commingle to make a fathomable concept of how evolution could work, outside the point of view of the strictly atheist, and religious.
Sincerely,
John Pepin
