dhw: 6) should be acceptable to theists and atheists alike, apart from those theists who believe in separate creation, since it leaves open the question of how the "decision-making source" came into existence. -Your euphemism "decision-making source" skips the real issue. Intelligent genomes must get their intelligence from some other intelligence. Otherwise you are proposing chance can create intelligent information. No Way. > > dhw: Would common descent (= all forms of life are descended from earlier forms) have been possible without such a mechanism?-I doubt it.