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Frank Visser, graduated as a psychologist of culture and religion, founded IntegralWorld in 1997. He worked as production manager for various publishing houses and as service manager for various internet companies and lives in Amsterdam. Books: Ken Wilber: Thought as Passion (SUNY, 2003), and The Corona Conspiracy: Combatting Disinformation about the Coronavirus (Kindle, 2020).

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Integral Design

Ken Wilber's Views on Evolution

Frank Visser

I have written about Wilber's views on evolution on this website many times. For an overview see "The Wilberian Evolution Report". Ever since Wilber wrote about the evolution of eyes and wings, in A Brief History of Everything (1996), I have wondered what his actual position would be in the Intelligent Design (ID) vs. evolution debate, which has captured the attention of the lay public both in the US and Europe. The questions raised in this debate are relevant for the integral community as well.

For is there, or is there not, a spiritual Something at work in evolution? And if so, can science in any way get hold of this Something? Or is speaking and writing about Spirit as a Force in evolution ("Spirit-in-action"), as Wilber has extensively done in his many works, by its very nature a matter of mere poetry?

Unfortunately, Wilber has not yet given a coherent account of his views on evolution. That is quite strange for someone who has subtitled his major work "The Spirit of Evolution", and who is currently advocating an "Evolutionary Spirituality". Wilber often is satisfied to declare that "there's an Eros [his term for Spirit] to the Kosmos", i.e. there's a spiritual influence at work in the cosmos, which can account for the evolution of complex forms of life. (Implying that, without the postulation of such a Force, this complexity cannot be accounted for in any scientific way.)

From the various ad hoc pronouncements Wilber has made over the years, we can however speculate on what his actual position is. Though he has distanced himself from the Intelligent Design movement on various occasions, the structure of his arguments, his strategy when writing about evolutionary theory, is very close to those of the ID-proponents.

Like them, Wilber has tried to cast doubt on neo-Darwinism, by suggesting that most mutations are lethal, or that it cannot explain the evolution of the bird's wing, or the human eye, by stressing the "jumpy" nature of evolution, in which new species suddenly arise on the scene, and by flirting with Stephen Jay Gould's theory of "punctuated equilibrium"—in which evolutionary periods of "statis", or slow development, are followed by brief periods of rapid evolution—which is now widely seen as an exaggerated point of view.

We find this as early as A Brief History of Everything:

The original 1996 edition of the book used even stronger language: "The standard, glib, neo-Darwinian explanation of natural selection—absolutely nobody believes this anymore." Even with this editorial revisioning, the language used is still extreme. "Mechanisms that absolutely nobody understands"? Does Wilber correctly convey the status in the field of evolutionary theory? Does he inform his readers correctly of the facts, or is his own agenda (debunking neo-Darwinian theory) all too obvious here?

Pick up any recent book on evolution, for example Why Evolution is True (2009) by Jerry Coyne, and one can read that the neo-Darwinian principles are by no means found wanting by the biological community. On the contrary. Every day, new evidence to substantiate the theory is added to the already impressive records.

Wilber then goes into the age old topic, so dear among creationists since the time of Darwin, that complex organs (such as eyes and wings) cannot have evolved by evolution, because their intermediary stages supposedly would not have any survival value:

A little study of the topic in popular books on evolution very soon shows that this presentation caricatures the whole subject beyond recognition. Many careful and detailed studies on the evolution of wings (and eyes) have been written. In any case, what did not happen during evolution is that through a process of many simultaneous mutations wings suddenly appeared on the scene. Half-wings definitely have an adaptive value. For example, it enables animals to jump from tree to tree across a longer distance, increasing their chances for survival.

Wilber continues:

"Nobody has a clue"? Or has Wilber not yet studied the relevant literature?

These statements are so far removed from the academic literature on the subject that it makes one cringe. "No evidence whatsoever of intermediate forms"? "Radically novel and emergent and incredibly complex holons come into existence in a huge leap"? This can only impress the lay person, not someone at home in the literature on evolutionary theory.

And mind you, this is the only field of study Wilber can claim to have at least some formal training in—given his degree in biochemistry.

When questioned by some of his students about his apparent lack of understanding of evolutionary theory, a few years back, he wrote (Vomitting confetti, Friday, May 27, 2005):

Since when does popularisation justify misrepresentation? There are dozens of popular books on evolution that state the facts clearly.

Again, the language here is worded so strongly that it's hard to take seriously. "real scientists... don't believe hardly any of its crucial tenets"? Would Jerry Coyne count as a real scientist? or Neil Shubin? Has Wilber ever practiced in this field of science? Has he ever published anything of academic value on the subject of evolutionary theory? I don't think so.

Then Wilber makes the following ominous suggestion:

Again, a quick search on the Internet about the reception of Behe's ideas makes clear that he has been discredited wholesale by the scientific community. In a recent book, The Edge of Evolution, Behe has even retracted many of his earlier statements! (See Coyne's review of Behe's book in the New Republic [June 2007]: "He now admits that the entire edifice of evolutionary theory is true: evolution, natural selection, common ancestry." And why? Because the evidence is too convincing).

That leaves Wilber in the awkward position that his sole source for claiming that "neo-Darwinian theory can't explain shit" has changed his mind in favor of orthodox neo-Darwinian theory. A very lonely position indeed.

Then Wilber touches on the ID-proponents themselves, who very often come from a fundamentalist Christian background:

Isn't it far more plausible that creation science finds support because Christian fundamentalist believers feel threatened in their faith by evolutionary theory? If evolution created us, there's no God? What "extensive problems" does Wilber hint at (given that even Behe no longer believes they exist?). And doesn't he know that the "scientific evidence" in favor of ID was found wanting even by the judge?

Neo-Darwinian theory can't explain the central aspects of evolution? Is that Wilber's message to his lay readers? Isn't that the very same strategy employed by ID-proponents, who try to point to "irreducibly complex" phenomena that could not possibly have evolved in any Darwinian way?

And more to the point: does that fact that science cannot (at this moment in time) explain a certain phenomenon give any support to the implicit suggestion that Intelligent Design (or "Integral Design" for that matter) can?

In his recent book Integral Spirituality Wilber addresses the ID-movement again, albeit in a brief footnote (p. 241-242):

We've seen how badly Wilber fared on those "transformational leaps", that is, if by that he meant the evolution of eyes and wings.

But Wilber provides, in the very footnote, a solution to this deepest problem of evolutionary theory:

Does Wilber imply that for his Eros-theory, even if "minimalist", there is "the slightest evidence... anywhere in heaven or on earth"? Is there any believable way Wilber can demonstrate how his Eros explains the emergence of complex organisms and their organs? Minimalist or not, it's still "the hand of God" he is invoking. Wilber may be more sophisticated then the average fundamentalist, but the logic is the same. (And to Behe's credit, he goes into much more biochemical detail then Wilber has ever done.)

Ken Wilber is faced with the same dilemmas as the Intelligent Design-adherents. The moment he declares that some phenomenon (in his case: the evolution of eyes and wings) cannot "possibly" be explained by Darwinian principles, he is vulnerable for every new discovery by science, which demonstrates that it can be explained that way after all. This often takes only a few years, as Behe c.s. have found out to their own dismay.

Ironically, in the very same year that A Brief History of Everything was published (1996), Richard Dawkins wrote a book dealing with exactly these two topics: the evolution of eyes and wings (Climbing Mount Improbable, 1996). But the difference between Wilber and Dawkins—a "real scientist" indeed—is that Dawkins is not satisfied with simply stating things, but takes the trouble to demonstrate and illustrate his theories with empirical findings rarely found in Wilber's books.

As said at the beginning of this essay, to find out what Wilber's actual position is regarding evolution, one has to look wide and far (this, incidentally, holds true for many other topics he has touched). For example, in one of his online writings (Excerpt A, "An Integral Age at the Leading Edge", Part V, "Integral Methodological Pluralism"), we again encounter his familiar train of arguments. He also touches upon the subject of speciation:

"An entire population of mammals showing up"? Again, one wonders what biology textbook would substantiate such statements. Haven't mammals evolved out of reptilian creatures over millions of years (or rather: from common ancestors showing characteristics of both)?

Wilber again gives his own fabricated theory of evolution, with multiple mutations arising simultaneously in many animals...:

If that is Wilber's version of "The Origin of Species", it makes sense to consult our contemporary authority on the subject, Jerry Coyne (who not only has a chapter on this in Why Evolution is True, but also wrote an authorative academic treatise on "Speciation"), who is explicitly defending the gradualist, neo-Darwinian model:

We... have plenty of evidence for speciation. We see lineages splitting in the fossile record. We see closely related species separated by geographic barriers. And we see new species beginning to arise as populations evolve incipient reproductive barriers—barriers that are the foundations of speciation.

No doubt, Mr. Darwin, were he to awaken today, would be delighted to find that the origin of species is no longer a "mystery of mysteries". (Why Evolution is True, p. 189)

Actually, Wilber's retorical strategy resembles that of Behe in many ways. Coyne described the latter in his review of The Edge of Evolution:

This description is entertaining and instructive, and those unacquainted with molecular biology will be wowed by the elegance of this adaptation. Indeed, such complex features were what lured many of us into biology, hoping to explain their evolution.

But the purpose of Behe’s [Wilber's] exercise, beyond pedagogy, is simply to overwhelm the reader with nature’s complexity, hoping to raise the question of how mutation and natural selection could possibly have built such a feature—as if being wowed were the same as being persuaded.

Instead of constantly employing suggestive language when dealing with this subject—"incredible", "mysterious", "huge leaps"—and absolutist phrases such as "nobody has a clue", "everybody believes this", "nobody believes that"— isn't it high time that Integral University starts a course in evolutionary theory to get at a more sober, and more adequate assessment of the field of evolution?