What did viruses do before the Fall?

[Cainkane1]

Here's a question for DOC, edge, AvalonXQ and any other creationists on this forum: What did viruses do before the Fall of Man? Creationists explain such evils as predation and parasitism as resulting from God's curse on g=creation following the Fall of Man. It's their way of dealing with the less benign aspects of nature. Before the Fall, they argue, all species of animal were herbivores. All of the nasty stuff - not only predation and parasitism, but hernias and fallen arches - came about as a result of the Fall.

Consider two species of bacteria from the genus Clostridium, C. tetani and C. botulinum, the causative agents, respectively, of tetanus and botulism. In the soil, they are beneficial to all life, since they affix atmospheric nitrogen. The creationist argument would be that, before the fall, all these bacteria did was to live in the soil and affix nitrogen. As a result of the Fall, they were corrupted to the point that they created lethal poisons.

However, how do creationists account for viruses? They do nothing other than hijack the genetic and protein making machinery of the cells they infect to create new viruses. In the process, they destroy the host cell. They are obligate parasites. So, creationists, what did viruses do before the fall?

They lived in harmony with man being provided with special powers with which to reproduce themselves and harmed no one. NOT. The whole story of Genesis is absurd from the morality to the talking snake.

The real inspiration for the Eden story was the effect civilized man had on naked savages living in a garden like jungle. The snake was an attempt at making Mesopotanian snake worship look bad by making the snake god a bad guy.

If the snake actually existed I'd say he was the good guy for showing the human race good and evil instead of us being in an animal like state knowing neither. True humans lost their immortality but I'd rather be dead than totally innocent anyway.

 

[TimCallahan]

I'm not the one having trouble understanding it.

1. Yes

2. Maybe, but may not have affected man.
One of the things that point to there being some truth to all of this is that we know that Cro-Magnon, the precursor to modern humans; were more robust than we are, stronger and a great survivor, innovator. Not to mention vestigial organs.

3. I am sure there was.

4. They are all beneficial, man was immune until after the fall.


5. Yes before the fall we were a perfect human being with a greater resistance to all of the misfortunes that befall us now. The life span of the characters of the bible point to this also as they and their offspring’s lifespans diminish as time goes by.

The theme is: we were as perfect as a being could be in the Material universe.
Then we fall, then in the bible we are promised a return to that type of human after the second coming of Christ who restores the Earth and humans in the restored universe as I understand the biblical theme.

God commanded a kind of de-evolution and after evolution continues on the course it is on now along with those viruses and bacteria’s.

Very well, ow that you've answered those, here's one last question:

Do you, as a YEC, believe viruses were around before the Fall, and, if so, what was their pre-Fall function?

 

[I Ratant]

...
The theme is: we were as perfect as a being could be in the Material universe.
Then we fall, then in the bible we are promised a return to that type of human after the second coming of Christ who restores the Earth and humans in the restored universe as I understand the biblical theme.

....

.
What is the timespan between the Fall and the Resurrection?
Shouldn't we be getting closer to the humanity that existed before the Fall, by now?
Like most of the way to a lifespan like that of Methusaleh, factoring in the loss of lifespan after the Fall to the time since the Resurrection.

 

[bruto]

I'm not the one having trouble understanding it.

1. Yes

2. Maybe, but may not have affected man. One of the things that point to there being some truth to all of this is that we know that Cro-Magnon, the precursor to modern humans; were more robust than we are, stronger and a great survivor, innovator. Not to mention vestigial organs.
3. I am sure there was.

4. They are all beneficial, man was immune until after the fall.


5. Yes before the fall we were a perfect human being with a greater resistance to all of the misfortunes that befall us now. The life span of the characters of the bible point to this also as they and their offspring’s lifespans diminish as time goes by.

The theme is: we were as perfect as a being could be in the Material universe.
Then we fall, then in the bible we are promised a return to that type of human after the second coming of Christ who restores the Earth and humans in the restored universe as I understand the biblical theme.

God commanded a kind of de-evolution and after evolution continues on the course it is on now along with those viruses and bacteria’s.

Reference for the highlighted part? Is there new research here? Last I knew, Cro Magnon people were about as short lived as other primiitive humans.

I don't suppose it's worth asking how the truth of the Adam and Eve story is borne out by the existence of large populations of pre-human ancestors never mentioned in the story, but one does wonder about the cognitive dissonance here. It seems as if it's all fact unless it's wrong, then it's an allegory unless that doesn't make sense either, in which case it's a fact. It gets a bit confusing.