Readers may remember J. Scott Turner, author of Purpose and Desire: What Makes Something “Alive” and Why Modern Darwinism Has Failed to Explain It. He was taking a risk even putting things that way (we thought he’d been Canceled a while back) but now he has a new video series out:
He has developed an evolutionary framework distinct from both neo-Darwinism and canonical intelligent design theory. It is founded on the concepts of homeostasis and “cognition.”
Brian Miller, “Scott Turner: New Video Series on His Model for Evolution” at Evolution News and Science Today
Here’s the series:
- Videos 1-2: Philosophical Foundations
- Videos 3-5: Vitalism
- Videos 6-7: Classical Darwinism
- Videos 8-9: Crisis of Classical Darwinism
- Videos 10-12: Neo-Darwinism and Its Failings
- Videos 13-16: Adaptation and the Extended Organism
- Videos 17-19: An Expanded Understanding of Heredity
- Videos 20-25: A New Evolutionary Framework Based on Purpose and Desire
Turner’s claim to fame, in a world saner than Darwinism allows, would be his seminal work on termites. But for now:
As Turner explains in his introductory video, his innovative approach to evolution was motivated by his research on the physiology of adaptation, particularly the social physiology of termite colonies. Physiology refers to how living organisms function, and adaptation refers to “how living things fit well into the environments in which they live.” He came to recognize that the study of evolution has become a subject completely separate from physiology, which has resulting in its incoherence. Turner states,
“…they cannot be separated. No credible theory of evolution can divorce how life evolves from how life works. Pursuing this question has led me into some heterodox thoughts about evolution. When I started my career, I was a pretty staunch Darwinist. Now thirty years later, I no longer am. I’ve concluded that the Darwinian idea simply doesn’t add up.”
Brian Miller, “Scott Turner: New Video Series on His Model for Evolution” at Evolution News and Science Today
Watch and like the series and send good wishes here.