As long as you pledge to include this part of Patterson's quote:
In terms of mechanism, or causes of evolutionary change, the neutral theory of molecular evolution is a scientific theory; it can be put in law-like form: changes in DNA that are less likely to be subject to natural selection occur more rapidly. This law is tested every time homologous DNA sequences are compared, and explains observations (summarized in Chapters 9 and 10) that are otherwise inexplicable. But neutral theory assumes (or includes) truth of the general theory - common ancestry or Darwin's 'descent with modification' - and 'misprints' shared between species, like the psuedogenes or reversed Alu sequences are (to me) incontrovertible evidence of common descent. I see the general historical theory, common descent, as being as firmly established as just about anything else in history.