Creationism´s Trojan Horse?

 

A recent critique of the so-called Third Way of Evolution (or Third Way). I assumed TWE was a legitimate - albeit controversial - participant in the scientific debates on Neo-Darwinism, but according to the video above, TWE has diplomatic relations with creationists from the Discovery Institute. 

The famed "crisis meeting" at the British Royal Society, which is often mentioned by creationists, was actually called by TWE´s founder Denis Noble himself. In other words, it was simply a TWE-adjacent meeting, not some kind of official scientific conference trying to salvage a evolutionary theory in deep trouble. Some fellows from the Discovery Institute were invited to participate. 

The critics charge that TWE has no scientific standing. That is, their research (if they even do any) isn´t leading anywhere. The more speculative supporters of TWE believe that the individual organism can willingly chose to evolve! There is currently no evidence for this super-Lamarckian take on things.  

Meanwhile, standard evolutionary science has already incorporated other mechanisms besides natural selection working on genetic mutations, for instance epigenetic inheritance, so "narrow Neo-Darwinism" isn´t a thing anymore. This extended synthesis explains things just fine and has lead to huge progress in the medical field (which happens to be Noble´s field).

But note that Sam McKee (the guy on the left in the video) speaks highly of Simon Conway Morris, who is a Christian and believes that evolutionary convergence is an argument for teleology and hence God. Conway Morris recently got a huge grant from the Templeton Foundation. McKee also points to remarkable convergence all across the board in evolution, but never explicitly draws the same conclusion as his collegue. Yet, McKee is a Christian himself. 

Maybe there is more to discover here...