[_ Old Earth _] Origins of viruses and bacteria

[Deep Thought]

What are the creationist explanations for the origin and evolution of viruses and bacteria? Why did God make them (in particular, the very virulent strains that kill people)?

 

[Bryce]

A very hard question to answer, this is the best I could find though in a sense it's lacking.

A review of the structure, function, and role of viruses in ecology is presented. It is concluded that viruses are non-living entities, similar to seeds and spores whose functions include carrying genes from one plant or animal to another. Viruses are a part of a system that helps to produce the variety that is critical for life and, importantly, they carry resistance to disease from one organism to another. Most viruses live in their host without causing problems. Pathogenesis is evidence of something gone wrong, a mutation or the accidental movement of genes, and not evidence of a system deliberately designed to cause human disease and suffering.
http://www.trueorigin.org/virus.asp

But far-beit from any man to attempt to understand the mind of a God.

 

[Patashu]

'they carry resistance to disease from one organism to another.'

What? Except you wouldn't need resistance to the disease if the viruses didn't exist in the first place, so how is this a good thing?

 

[Deep Thought]

No more takers?

 

[Bryce]

I was waiting for someone else, but since nobody else did, let me give it a shot.
This time I actually did some reading up
Evil, pain, and suffering came into the world as a result of our rejection of God's perfect plan. Perfection rejected always results in evil, which may be good but is still short of God's best.
A reason people lived so long early on in the Bible may have been because diseases still hadn't had a chance to really develop. Some would say the earth was a giant greenhouse with a water-type canopy that was a near-perfect environment, one destroyed by the flood.

At any rate, I believe bacteria and viruses are something that developed in a fallen world as a result of God withdrawing many of His protections from this once-perfect world. Clearly He still has some however.
For example, our immune system is something that shouldn't exist. Bacteria and viruses ought to be eating us from the inside out if not for this miraculous immune system within us which is a scientific improbability in itself. AIDS lets us see what happens when that immune system is taken away, people are eaten alive by the bacteria our immune system would normally protect us from.