On a different panel, this time on radio, yet another religious leader was similarly perplexed by identical twins. He was swiftly informed of the undisputed scientific fact that identical twins are clones of each other with the same genes, exactly like Dolly the sheep except that Dolly's clone is older. His reason for denying the relevance of the twin analogy was even odder than the previous one. Indeed it was transparently self-contradictory. He had great faith, he informed us, in the power of nurture over nature.
Nurture is why identical twins are really different individuals.
When you get to know a pair of twins, he pointed out triumphantly, they even look a bit different. Er, quite so. He just didn't get it - but, after all, he hadn't been chosen for his ability to follow an argument. Religious spokesmen and spokeswomen enjoy an inside track to influence and power which others have to earn through their own ability or expertise. Maybe there is a good reason, and I'm ready to be persuaded by it.