The enigma of evolution

E. L. Grant Watson was a British writer, naturalist and explorer who questioned Darwin's theory of evolution from a broadly spiritual perspective. His definitive statement on the matter is the book "The Mystery of Physical Life". Grant Watson had contacts with both Carl Jung and Owen Barfield, and many of his alternative ideas on the origin of species sound Anthroposophical. He has also been referenced by Sayeed Hossein Nasr of the Traditionalist school.

"Enigmas of Natural History" is a collection of short articles of the "very light reading" variety, dealing with everything from sea-slugs and ants to rabbits and butterflies. The real purpose of the work, however, is not to entertain, but to disprove Darwinism. Watson's strategy is the usual one: he describes curious behaviour among animals and plants that seemingly defies an evolutionary explanation due to irreducible complexity. His main example is the complete metamorphosis of the butterfly. Grant Watson also attempts to find behavioural patterns that are self-destructive and therefore maladaptive, and believes that the fear rabbits feel when chased by stoats could be an example. These kinds of arguments are also used by Christian creationists.

Grant Watson goes one step further and speculates that occult forces (my term) might exist in the animal kingdom. Perhaps the stoat hypnotizes the rabbit, or perhaps their blood have an occult connection? He claims that snake-skins "shed" even when removed from a dead snake, and wonders whether the intelligence of whales might be of a Buddhistic variety. The least believable claim in the book is that cougars in Argentina are fond of humans, never attacks them and even defends wounded humans against jaguars!

The author never presents an alternative to Darwinian evolution, and perhaps didn't have any at the time of writing this book. He speculates about a vital force in nature, presumably some kind of goal-directed spiritual force. Another speculation is that all living creatures co-evolve, not in the trivial Darwinian sense, but in a more robust sense, as if they were all part of the same super-organism. (Once again, this is my interpretation of Grant Watson's scattered remarks on the subject.) He ends the book with a chapter on man, pointing out that humans are curiously non-specialized compared to most other animals, and that animals might therefore be modifications of an originally "human" archetype. This seems similar to the Anthroposophical position, which envisions man (or creatures leading up to man) as the stem of evolution, with animals and plants being secondary branches. I say this with the reservation that the Anthroposophical position is pretty convoluted! (It has often been grossly simplified or distorted to mean "apes evolved from man, rather than man from apes".)

As already mentioned, "Enigmas of Natural History" isn't a theoretical treatise. It's written in the form of 24 short observations or meditations, which might just as well have been published in a popular weekly magazine. Those who want more philosophical meat should consult "The Mystery of Physical Life".

Final note. According to Wikipedia, "Mysteries of Natural History" is really the same book as "Enigmas of Natural History". As usual, the US and British editions have different titles. But this is Wiki - I haven't been able to check the claim.

I'm not sure how to rate E.L. Grant-Watson's crypto-creationist musings, but since reading the book was a "guilty pleasure" of sorts, I'll give it three stars.