A software developer friend brought this article in The Atlantic to my attention: The CRISPR Baby Scandal Gets Worse by the Day
And he writes:
I find it amusing that they keep referring to this kind of thing as “editing”. They’re going to need to figure out if they’re going to keep using “editing” as the concept they want to convey and as such provide an opening for ID proponents to make the connection to the semiotic nature of genetic code (and thereby creating testimony against interest) or begin utilizing a different concept to bulwark their materialist approach.
Even the notion of DNA being “code” is going to require alteration. Granted, DNA is an amazingly efficient data storage mechanism, but again referring to it as code strongly implies the notion that someone/something had to create the language the code is written in. Again, they need a different metaphor or they will continue to provide an opening to ID adherents.
As a software developer, I envision the whole notion of editing genetic code as a process that could one day look very much like what I do. Open an editor, delete the code you don’t want, insert the code you do want, save, compile/build, and run. If that is the picture they want to paint, so be it, but doing so will undermine the notion then that DNA can be derived from purely materialistic terms.
Grabs popcorn and wonders if they’ll even notice.