Indeed there is sufficient evidence from DNA to conclude that every living thing has a common ancestor that evolved in a hierarchical manner. My concern is that, is this the only possible conclusion?
I've yet to see one more plausible. Indeed, I've yet to see one that isn't as contrived and
ad hoc as ID.
I wonder if the likes of Richard Dawkins, who is very intelligent, pretended to believe in God the creator for 12 months, would come up with a different solution/conclusion.
Why would pretending to believe in God change what can be deduced from the evidence? Few atheists are
strong atheists; that is, the vast majority of atheists, including myself and Professor Dawkins, are of the "I don't assert that God doesn't exist, nor that he does" variety. We haven't
a priori excluded the possibility that God exists, or that he might be behind it - logically, that possibility will always be there, in general terms. The fact is, the evidence simply doesn't point to an intelligence behind anything not made by animals.
The scientist who proves otherwise will go down in history as the greatest scientist of all time, trumping Newton, Darwin, and Einstein - they would have answered one of the oldest questions mankind has ever pondered.
That's why I find it amusing when Creationists (not yourself, but other Creationists) say that scientists are scared of changing the status quo, that science is stuck and stagnant, etc. It's not. It embraces change as its greatest strength.
I will read that paper when I find the time. I understand the DNA/RNA to be a digital system. A 3rd Generation programming language (or higher) that converts (via a compiler or two) its code into machine code would be absolutely useless if we did not first understand Boolean algebra, which is essential to utilize ON/OFF gates (or whatever they're called) in, e.g., a CPU. Since DNA/RNA is a digital system, it would have to obey Boolean algebra (or an equivalent) principles, it cannot rely on a hit-and-miss principle in order to function, surely. Don't we observe DNA pushing all the right buttons?
Nope. We see DNA operating largely OK, with mistakes being incorporated into the overall architecture.
You have to be careful when analogising how DNA works; yes, computer languages are a good analogy, with binary code underlying more abstract language. But, it's fallacious to say, "and since computer languages are made by an intelligence, therefore DNA is too". Society of the economy can be likened to a biological organism, but clearly they're not; likewise, just because DNA can be likened to a computer language, doesn't constitute evidence for design, or a designed.
Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't. If you can show that the operation of DNA couldn't have evolved (not that we don't know, but that it fundamentally couldn't), that's a whole other argument
