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If God created Adam out of dust — the dust INCLUDES the DNA.

It seems to me this is not necessarily so. That is, I suspect DNA is not "in" the "dust" — if we take "dust" to mean physical matter. If DNA is "in" the matter, then inorganic minerals should be able to boot-strap themselves into organic life forms. (But we never observe this....)

DNA is a specification of life. As such, I imagine it was given "in the Beginning" according to the Word of God, Logos Alpha to Omega, along with the laws governing material Nature and its evolution in time.

Well, JMHO FWIW. Thank you so much for writing, Moseley — and for sponsoring this wonderful thread!

"If God created Adam out of dust — the dust INCLUDES the DNA."
It seems to me this is not necessarily so. That is, I suspect DNA is not "in" the "dust" — if we take "dust" to mean physical matter

This seems to be part of the problem where there is a lot of hair-splitting going on.

No, DNA is not "in" the dust. DNA and every other part of a biological body was created FROM the dust.

God, using the raw materials on the Earth ("dust") created a human body in all of its details.

So God created the DNA, using the materials on the Earth.

God created the very concept of DNA.

God created the rules by which the world operates.

God created the rules of chemistry which cause the DNA to do what DNA does.

God created the programming of sequences on the DNA which cause the programming to produce a certain result in biology.

There seems to be the idea that, using evolution, God created man out of dust, but the DNA is an entirely separate issue.