Another example of the contribution of Darwin's theory to progress in biology was provided by J. Craig Venter who told the following story in his book, A Life Decoded. He was attending a meeting where a Catholic priest made the statement that no human gene should be patentable. Venter asked if he thought it would be okay to patent a yeast gene, and after a moment's thought the priest said yes, it would. Then Venter asked him what he would say if the yeast gene were exactly the same as a human gene (he named a gene that was identical in yeast and humans). This apparently shocked the priest, who believed that humans are so far removed from yeast that no human gene could possibly exist also in yeast (or conversely). The existence of genes which are shared by widely different organisms conclusively demonstrates the kinship of all living things on this planet. Such a kinship is a direct consequence of Darwinian evolution, but just doesn't make any sense under the intelligent design theory. (This citation was suggested by Lloyd Milligan.)

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