On some common objections and complaints about my ERV FAQ.

ERV stands for "Endogenous RetroVirus". ERVs are the remains of viral infections that have entered our genomes. We inherit them from our ancestors and pass them down to our offspring. To find out more, visit the "ERV FAQ" link at the top of my pages.

https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/on-some-common-objections-and.html

1) It's written in a blog.

Obviously. But why is this a problem? Books are written on paper. URLs are written as computer-readable files. So what?

This is a dishonest and lazy objection, the complainant trying to excuse themselves from addressing the content.

It is rather ironic that such complaints often come from people who expect you to deal seriously with their posts on Facebook and the like.

2) It links to Wikipedia.

This bleat is similar to the one above. It is lazy and dishonest. Wikipedia is monitored and corrected by a huge army of contributors and reviewers. It has been compared favourably with the Encyclopedia Britannica. Its articles typically have comprehensive reference sections, against which the contents can be checked. And if you find something that is incorrect or otherwise unsatisfactory, get stuck in and do some work yourself to get it corrected. Don't shoot the messenger. Deal with the message.

3) It's not peer reviewed.

Articles in my blog link to the relevant peer-reviewed scientific literature, and there is a comprehensive collection of this literature here. https://web.archive.org/web/20230531193743/http://www.evolutionarymodel.com/ervs.htm#References

Remember that my blog is an educational piece, not a scientific paper in the sense of something intended for publication in scientific journals. It's not my problem that some people are ineducable.

4) It's all speculation. It doesn't prove anything.

Go to this page which explains how we know that ERVs descend from retroviral integrations. https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/why-do-virologists-and-geneticists.html

5) ERVs are functional

This is the favourite (and let's be honest, it's just about the only) would-be objection from the science deniers. Yes. We know. Real scientists doing real science found this out and told you. To find out how this doesn't help you, go to https://barryhisblog.blogspot.com/p/the-not-junk-efence.html

6) ERVs can transfer to other species by cross infection.

You have missed the main, essential point.

Yes, viruses can crossover from one species to another. SARS-COV-2 is a well known case. This is known as a "spillover event" or "transspecies transmission" or "Horizontal transmission" between species. One case involving retroviruses and ERVs is that of the gibbon ape leukemia virus (GALV) and the koala retrovirus (KoRV). These are so similar that it is thought to have transferred from gibbons to koalas via an as-yet unidentified intermediate host.

But we don't claim that this is evidence for common ancestry between gibbons and koalas. Why? Because the ERVs in both species are not located in identically corresponding DNA positions. Only common ancestry, "vertical transmission" can produce and explain large numbers of ERVs in precisely corresponding DNA loci in the genomes of two species, such as chimps and us.