Coronaviruses and retroviruses aren’t in the same family though, there would have to be a lot of changes and longer sequences for there to be engineering...I’ll look at the sequence tomorrow but it’s probably just shared ancestry in the protein.
I think it has both. They were actively bioengineering this virus but this short segment resembling HIV genetic code was random via “natural” means while they were growing (replicating) the virus in their lab.
Selective pressure can be applied in a laboratory through antibiotics or other means but it isn’t natural selection. I’m a grad student working in a lab at a major public university doing genetic engineering...I know what I’m talking about.
I know that too, that’s why you’ll notice I put “natural” in quotes. I’m not a grad student and I’m no expert in viral genetics but I am a doctor and do understand enough of this to form a decent opinion. I’m just trying to make these points understandable for those here without a medical/scientific background. We’re all on the same team in this discussion.
I understand, I don’t mean to sound combative but I am exasperated. I’ve seen no real evidence that this is a bioweapon and to say so seems like fear mongering. My main source of exasperation is everyone thinking that bioengineering would make a more dangerous virus than something that would appear naturally...scientists just aren’t that competent y’all, lol.
I’m not convinced it was a bioweapon per se either. I think they were replicating SARS like coronaviruses in their lab and attempting to make a virus that could have a corresponding vaccine for the Chinese that would be effective against all of these emerging coronaviruses. Their scientists must know that without a foolproof vaccine, using this strain as a bioweapon would come back to affect them too. So while I do believe it’s a bioengineered virus on which they were doing research to obtain a vaccine, I don’t think it was being studied as a bioweapon at this stage. Though it could be used as such in the future if they did indeed develop a working vaccine only intended for their own people.
The South China Morning Post has a column dedicated to the growing fatalities due to Coronavirus: https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soc...-45-more-deaths-1921-new-cases-reported-hubei What I find interesting is that although the majority of the cases are occuring in mainland China, there are indeed cases that have occurred in other countries. Yet, only Chinese persons are dying. I have not heard of one non-Chinese person who has contracted this virus and died from it. The virus appears to be a bioweapon targeting the Chinese genome.
The first person outside China who died from this coronavirus was just identified in the Philippines.
A Chinese national: " The Philippines has reported the first coronavirus death outside China, hours after a senator said the country would issue a sweeping travel ban that included Hong Kong. The victim was a 44-year-old male Chinese national, who died on February 1. He was the companion of a 38-year-old Chinese woman, who arrived in the Philippines from Wuhan on January 21 after travelling through Hong Kong." https://www.scmp.com/news/china/soc...-45-more-deaths-1921-new-cases-reported-hubei
Recent discoveries in molecular biology have revealed that organisms such as bacteria and viruses are of such complexity that they possess sufficient information within themselves to enable them to adapt properties from the DNA makeup of other organisms (cf Evolution 2 by Perry Marshall). Such abundant information speaks eloquently of God's miraculous Creation and makes a mockery of the Darwinian notion that life can derive from mere accident. It would be ironic in this period of homosexualist triumphalism if this Coronavirus is a self-engineered mutation consequent to exposure of this virus to HIV, the latter a consequence itself of human misbehaviour. It would be testimony yet again, as if any more was needed, of what are 'the wages of sin'.
The idea of natural selection as a driving force of evolution is a common error. Natural selection is a prevalent term for what is the culling action upon organisms of the natural environment. It evolves nothing, but merely determines which organism survives and which not. Darwin's own definition of evolution, to paraphrase, was 'the consequence of gradual mutation over time acted on by natural selection'. It is the failure of the mutation thesis (a Waterloo still unacknowledged by the scientific establishment) that has undermined the credibility of Darwinian Evolutionism. Natural selection has no direct creative effect whatsoever, so we have to look elsewhere for the creative driving force of evolution. It's staring us in the face that this force is an effect of the incredible amount of information programmed into biological organisms, famously much though not by any means all within DNA. The idea that DNA was evolved by mutation and natural selection is similar to, but in levels of complexity orders of magnitude higher, believing that one's house first gets built and then your architect derives his plans from it. The suspicion that man might be the creative driving force being acted upon by natural selection in the case of this coronavirus is certainly plausible, but I think it more likely that this is a natural consequence of unwise human activity inducing natural biological reaction in a preprogrammed manner. Creation seems a type of Programme and God the Programmer. The algorithims are preset to react to human sin and folly. The programme repair-mechanism usually intervenes in the form of Famine, War, Pestilence and Death. My qualifications are merely that of a veterinarian, with a habit of reading around things, so take this as you will.
And the 2 people who have the virus in England are Chinese nationals -- Stupid question but is there anyone who is not of Chinese origin got this disease? https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-51337400
Not a stupid, but essential, question. The virus might well, as Richard pointed out, be one that specifically targets the Chinese genome. This, if it proves to be so, might have very serious consequences for the Chicom government. We have seen the continuing rebellion in Hong Kong. There have been rumours of similar rebellions on the Chinese Mainland. The Communists have been doubling down on their religious and political oppression which in itself is an indicator of insecurity. If a virus has emerged, for whatever reason, that specifically fatally attacks the Chinese people the Communists might find it hard to control the fear and anger, just as Chernobyl unleashed similar forces from the Soviet peoples.
I think your observations are brilliant. They make perfect sense to me. The luciferian pride of mankind to believe "we are as gods". Our Father in His Mercy has to pull us up short to save us. Nothing teaches us our true condition as absolute helplessness in the face of disease. May our hearts be open to receive His Mercy.
“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God.” “The earth is the Lord’s and the fullness thereof.”
I prefer the Greek -- in the beginning was the Logos and the Logos was with God. LOGOS = the Word of God, or principle of divine reason and creative order, identified in the Gospel of John with the second person of the Trinity incarnate in Jesus Christ. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Logos
