The title of Blanchard’s piece is catchy enough that it caught my eye the other day so I read it. But I have to say that I think he really hasn’t done that well of a job.

Like so many writers, even on this subject, he can’t seem to let go of the teleological language. For example:

Genes, stored in every cell, are the body’s blueprints; they code for traits like eye color, disease susceptibility, and a bazillion other things that make you you.

If genes are “code”, then who wrote the “code”. If genes are “blueprints”, who drew up the “blueprints”.

This is not pedantry on my part - language is important and there are immutable ties behind our language’s history and our religious history.