For we know that the whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now.
Romans 8:22
"There is a new virus sweeping the world. Most people are calling
it ‘coronavirus’. It was first noticed in Wuhan, China and is already popping up in multiple countries.
Did you know that your cells produce many of the same things that viruses are made of?
We make protein coats, we copy DNA and RNA, we have mechanisms of moving DNA to different parts of the genome, etc. Thus, some viruses might have originated in normal cellular operations.
The parts are all there, sometimes the parts are assembled into things that almost appear virus-like. All it would take is for a few accidental changes and the assemblage could get out of hand and ‘go viral’.
---If one of those checks fails, the virus might be able to reproduce
much faster than it was originally designed to do.
---This would result in disease.
Thus, a ‘beneficial’ virus might be able to turn into a dangerous one. It might just take a few small mutations, like maybe a change in a cellular recognition factor that prevents the host cells from detecting, and therefore regulating, the virus.
Viruses that jump between species are called zoonotics (notice the
word ‘zoo’ in that name). We have lots of evidence for zoonotic viruses, including influenza, the coronavirus family (this new virus, SARS, and MERS), and HIV (the virus that causes AIDS).
All of these cause disease in humans. Some of them have persisted in the human population for a very long time. Happily, however, many new viruses burn themselves out.
The initial creation had no disease, yet diseases have risen over the past six thousand years. If they rose once, there is no reason to expect another viral contagion to not appear in the future.
*Viruses are part of God’s created order.
*We can see that many of them play beneficial roles.
*Yet, we live in a sin-cursed world with much suffering, death, and disease.
*Some viruses have become dangerous, causing untold suffering across humanity throughout our history."
CMI
Romans 8:22
"There is a new virus sweeping the world. Most people are calling
Did you know that your cells produce many of the same things that viruses are made of?
The parts are all there, sometimes the parts are assembled into things that almost appear virus-like. All it would take is for a few accidental changes and the assemblage could get out of hand and ‘go viral’.
---If one of those checks fails, the virus might be able to reproduce
---This would result in disease.
Thus, a ‘beneficial’ virus might be able to turn into a dangerous one. It might just take a few small mutations, like maybe a change in a cellular recognition factor that prevents the host cells from detecting, and therefore regulating, the virus.
Viruses that jump between species are called zoonotics (notice the
All of these cause disease in humans. Some of them have persisted in the human population for a very long time. Happily, however, many new viruses burn themselves out.
The initial creation had no disease, yet diseases have risen over the past six thousand years. If they rose once, there is no reason to expect another viral contagion to not appear in the future.
*Viruses are part of God’s created order.
*We can see that many of them play beneficial roles.
*Yet, we live in a sin-cursed world with much suffering, death, and disease.
*Some viruses have become dangerous, causing untold suffering across humanity throughout our history."
CMI