Evidently such questions are simply banned from, say, the Journal of Theoretical Biology, which is probably the field's flagship journal....
There seems to be an almost religious commitment to the doctrines of naturalism and materialism over there.
Nonetheless, I do believe that a paradigm shift is coming sooner or later not motivated by biologists per se, but by physicists and mathematicians.
I'm all for "cross-disciplinary" investigation of the issues of life and mind.... We probably need to have philosophy weigh in, too. This will drive the Darwinists nutz!
Thank you so much for writing, dearest sister in Christ!