Kenneth R. Miller: How we Evolved to have Reason, Consciousness, and Free Will

I am pumped to share this episode with you. For a long time I have enjoyed the work of biologist Kenneth R. Miller and over the course of this conversation we cover a number of topics which include…

How the poetry of Thomas Merton help bring Ken back to faith
His role in the debates between Creation Science, Intelligence Design, and Evolution
“if Augustine and Aquinas were around today, they would be evolutionists”
on the craft of being a baseball umpire
the nature of Biblical truth and scientific discovery
stories from the legal battles over Intelligent Design
the overwhelming evidence for a common ancestor
how humans are unique among the natural world
the failure of Sam Harris’ argument on free will
a sweet E.O. Wilson story on free will and its necessity for science
his friendship and disagreement with Stephen Jay Gould about NOMA
Ken’s theory of mind and consciousness
he argues against Nagel about the nature of consciousness
we discuss emergence via complexity

Kenneth R. Miller is Professor of Biology. He did his undergraduate work at Brown, and earned a Ph D in 1974 at the University of Colorado. He spent six years as Assistant Professor at Harvard University before returning to Brown University in 1980. His research work on cell membrane structure and function has produced more than 60 scientific papers and reviews in leading journals, including CELL, Nature, and Scientific American.