ERV FAQ: Hasn't the evolutionist's story about ERVs been debunked by "scientists" such as Dr. Yingguang Liu and Dr. Georgia Purdom?

https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/hasnt-evolutionists-story-about-ervs.html


Sadly, no.

Common themes of creationist attempts to firefight the clear evidence for common descent from endogenous retroviruses (ERVs) are -

  • Fabricating and attacking a straw-man argument that the conclusions from ERVs depend on the notion that they are all nonfunctional 'junk'. The claim is, (there is no way of beating about the bush), a lie. Creating and attacking a straw-man argument is an exercise in deception in itself. It is real scientists, not like those who would sign up to the Answers in Genesis Statement of Faith (which explains why I put "scientists" in scare-quotes), who discovered that some elements of ERVs perform useful, sometimes even vital functions for their carriers. They made their discoveries public and were rewarded by being cherry-picked, quote mined and misrepresented by creationists. None thought that function in retrovirally-derived sequences called evolution into question, because exaptation is a simple explanation for them. And so much for the conspiracy theory that "evolutionists", worldwide, and over multiple generations, are involved in a plot to pull the wool over the eyes of upright "Bible-believing" creationist cult members.
  • Ignoring all the evidence that ERVs are derived from retroviral integrations into ancestral germ-line cells. Far better not to talk about that and distract the "faithful" with inconvenient facts. 
  • Positing design "rationales" for ERVs. Again, the FAQ addresses this notion. It just doesn't hold water.
I have gone into the above in more detail at "The 'Not Junk' Defence".

See


Were Retroviruses Created Good? A Critique. (Dr. Yingguang Liu)

Evolutionary “Junk” or God’s Tools? (Dr. Georgia Purdom)

On the Natural History of Retroviruses (Liu and Soper debunked by fellow creationist, Todd Wood).


Questioning Evolutionary Presuppositions about Endogenous Retroviruses (Dr. Anjeanette Roberts)


Toppling Another Evolutionary Icon, ENCODE Data Suggests Endogenous Retroviruses Are Functional (Casey Luskin)


Do Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs) Support Common Ancestry? Yes, they do. (Dr. Andrew Fabich)

Viral Genome Is Bunk - Or Is Tompkins' Article Bunk? (Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D.)


Gorilla Genome Is Bad News for Evolution (Jeffrey P. Tomkins, Ph.D. eviscerated by P.Z. Myers, Ph.D.)

"Viral Genome Junk Hits the Trash" - More Trash from our Jeff

From a piece by one Dr. Sean DeVere Pitman, M.D.


On Luskin's “Large Scale” Function for Endogenous Retroviruses

On Doyle's "Large scale function for ‘endogenous retroviruses’"

Corrections to "Do koalas prove that humans got part of their DNA from viruses? - creation.com"

On an "Evolution" (fake) "News" article from Casey Luskin - Junk No Longer: ERVs Are “Integral” and “Important Components” of Immune Responses


Place marker. ERVs and LINEs—along novel lines of thinking

Place marker. https://www.icr.org/article/viruses-architects-brain/



Other articles

On "Reasons to Believe's" "A Common Design View of ERVs Encourages Scientific
 Investigation
"
Perform “Critical Cellular Functions” On a blog page from the fraudulently named "Evolution News"

Re. Endogenous Retroviruses and Evolution (Modern Synthesis) by "Apologetics Central"

Do Shared ERVs Support Common Ancestry? "Evolutionary Model's" response to "Jonathan M" at Evolution "News".

The search for Adam and Eve. Mclatchie backpedals on ERVs, only not quite far enouh.

“Evolution's Best Argument Has Become Its Worst Nightmare” by Brian Thomas of the “Institute for Creation Research” - a Critique

Do Endogenous Retroviral Sequences (ERVs) Prove Evolution? Yes, they do! (Critique of an article at "Evolution Dismantled")

Does Retroviral DNA Insert Randomly into Genomes? More creationist lies at reasons.org


Who is Your Creator? - Endogenous Retroviruses (ERVs).

"If I were wrong, then one [author] would have been enough!" - Albert Einstein.

See also, On the Answers in Genesis' Statement of Faith. This is why I put creationist "scientists" in scare-quotes.

I was discussing ERVs with Ann Gauger of the "Discovery Institute". This was via Facebook messaging. As I was explaining the evidence to her, she asked me for references to the relevant scientific literature. As soon as I did so, she promptly blocked me! Regrettably, I did not save a record of our exchange.

And just for fun, here is my refutation of "NephilimFree's" YouTube video, "Refuting the Endogenous Retrovirus Claim of Evolutionists".

2 comments:

  1. The argument for the ape family tree from endogenous retroviruses is one of my favourites, and is used in "29+ Evidences for Macroevolution", with which I am sure you are familiar

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    Replies
    1. Yes indeed, although Theobald is rather out of date on the subject now.

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