When Did God Create the Liver Fluke?

[MineralMan]

And why?

Discuss...

[Anon-C]

1. So that you could create this OP, OP?

[MineralMan]

2. I doubt that very much.

In fact, since I'm an atheist, I'd say it was impossible, but others might have a different point of view. But, yours is simply not correct. I needed no particular reason to ask why a deity would create lifeforms that posed a life-threatening danger to other creatures, including humans.

Apparently, you have no answer to offer. That's OK.

[Anon-C]

3. What answer can I offer, MM? Many lifeforms aside from those which subsist on sunlight or chemicals

...consume life to live. If you or a loved one suffers from this affliction, I am very sorry.

[MineralMan]

4. Well, that's not a very good answer for a deity-created world.

Think about it.

[Anon-C]

6. I thought about it, and while I agree its a poor answer I think that it would be a pretty good...

...repose from a Gnostic point of view.

[MineralMan]

5. There are many such questions:

[NeoGreen]

7. And, was it before the Small Pox virus or after?...

...and should a virus be listed as "life"?

[Mariana]

8. My daughter, who has studied virology, says no.

Viruses are not alive.

[Voltaire2]

9. They are borderline.

They do lots of things we associate with life.

[MineralMan]

11. Incomplete, parasitic somethings.

Maybe space aliens? Look at a bacteriophage, for example.

[Act_of_Reparation]

16. I know a T4 when I see one

[MineralMan]

17. Yup. I've always been fascinated by the T4 bacteriophages.

Whenever I see a discussion about whether viruses are living things or not, I see that image in my head. They are truly strange entities, utilizing bacteria to reproduce by injecting genetic information into them.

It's difficult for me not to see them as lifeforms. But, they are strange lifeforms. It is those T4 viruses that make the argument for them being living things.

There are bacteriophages specific to many disease causing bacterial species. Research into using them as an alternative to antibiotics has been going on in Russia for some time, and may end up being a way to fight bacterial resistance to antibiotics down the road.

Other viruses work differently to attack cells, of course, but the concept is similar. It is, however, the structure of the T4-type viruses that is so fascinating. They are ideally adapted for their only function, which seems to be to reproduce, utilizing the systems in bacteria.

Clearly, viruses evolve, as constant changes in the influenza viruses demonstrate.

The puzzle is how they came to exist in the first place. When did the first viruses appear and how? I think there is a key to the entire evolutionary process in the appearance of viruses in the story of life on this planet.

I made a joke about them being space aliens, but it's entirely possible that the first viruses arrived here on some sort of asteroid, very early on. I'm sure there are people investigating viral origins. I need to go look for some more information.

[Act_of_Reparation]

18. Pretty wild stuff.

I have close ties to the phage research community. They're up to some neat stuff right now, I can assure you.

[MineralMan]

19. Glad to hear it.

I think it's a promising line of research, indeed.

I'm trying to remember when I first saw an artist's conception of a T-4 phage. It was a long time ago. I immediately made a small metal sculpture that was a representation of it. Sadly, I don't know what became of that. It was made in about 1973, I think. It's somewhere here, but I haven't seen it for years.

I do remember thinking that the structure and it's method of attaching to and injecting its genetic load into a bacterium was pretty amazing. I mean, we're talking about structures at the molecular level with such a thing. Incredible, I think, that evolution produced such a clever design for a parasite of bacteria.

Wonderful!

[MineralMan]

10. God made everything. Viruses, too.

[Pope George Ringo II]

12. It's a metaphor which was created last Tuesday to test your faith.

Mysterious ways and all that.

[Bretton Garcia]

13. In reality, God made metaphorical viruses.

That eat believers' spirits, brains, like brain-eating zombees.

[Pope George Ringo II]

14. This would be funnier if they didn't engage in ritual cannibalism.

[NeoGreen]

15. All Things Dull and Ugly...

...

All Things Dull and Ugly
Monty Python

All things dull and ugly,
All creatures short and squat,
All things rude and nasty,
The Lord God made the lot.
Each little snake that poisons,
Each little wasp that stings,
He made their brutish venom.
He made their horrid wings.
All things sick and cancerous,
All evil great and small,
All things foul and dangerous,
The Lord God made them all.
Each nasty little hornet,
Each beastly little squid
Who made the spikey urchin?
Who made the sharks? He did!
All things scabbed and ulcerous,
All pox both great and small,
Putrid, foul and gangrenous,
The Lord God made them all.
Amen.