Viruses Everywhere: Biblical & Biological Insights

Part of human nature is to fear things that are large, powerful, potentially deadly, and unpredictable.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, global tyrants, and wars come to mind.  But our most recent threat comes from none of the above---except that it is unpredictable and potentially deadly.  The Coronavirus (COVID-19) is smaller than microscopic--it is sub-microscopic!  We call it the “invisible enemy.” 

It is easy to be anxious and even fearful now even though history records that America has withstood great threats before.  World conquerors, including Napoleon, Hitler, Stalin, Khrushchev have loomed large on the world horizon.  Our nation has also endured a Civil War, the Great Depression, nuclear annihilation, the turmoil of the Vietnam War, and the 9-11 attacks.  Given the recent revitalization of the economy, some of us wondered if there was anything large and powerful enough to bring our nation to its knees?  Now we know the answer is “Yes:” -- a tiny virus—our “invisible enemy.”

Americans who have known the fear of “large enemies” are now especially unnerved by a tiny “army from the unseen world.”  Our lives are threatened by infection and death, and by radical changes we must now make in our lifestyle.  Our fast-paced lives are slowed to a snail’s pace and many have become increasingly isolated.  Any one or all of these happenings are bringing us face-to-face with the reality of an “unseen world,” and we are now looking beyond our “invisible enemy” and toward the spiritual world to seek much-needed comfort, meaning, and purpose.

Does God Have a Purpose for Viruses?
My previous article, Coronavirus Resistance: Biological and Spiritual, addressed how we can respond to the virus pandemic in terms of “resistances” to two kinds—biological and spiritual.  However, I did not address one important consideration that underlies these two “resistances.” When tragedy strikes on a grand scale, God is often placed on trial.  Sudden events like hurricanes, earthquakes, and pandemics can make us question the nature and character of God in two ways. 

First, if He is a God of purpose, what possible good is served by widespread suffering and death?   Specifically, if we are to believe the account in Genesis 1: 31 that “God saw all that He had made, and behold, it was very good,” then what good is there in viruses that inflict suffering and death upon humans and many forms of life?  And second, does God even see the sufferings and deaths of people supposedly created in His very image?  And even if God does see, does He really care?

The answer to the first question, “What good is there in viruses?” is coming through recent discoveries in the science of biology.  Biologists who base their logic on biblical revelation, may reason as follows: 
1) God created the world for His purposes and pronounced it good.
2) God created viruses for a good purpose within His creation.
3) The fall of humans into sin corrupted creation (Genesis 3).
4) The nature and purpose of viruses was altered from what was originally “good.”  
This line of thinking, that there is design and purpose in creation, may lead the scientist in his or her approach to research.  The research of my friend and former colleague, Dr. Joe Francis, illustrates this point.

Answers from Biology?
As a biology professor at The Master’s University, in Santa Clarita, California, Dr. Francis approaches his research in microscopy, cellular immunology, invertebrate biology, and microbiology from an intelligent design (ID) perspective.  Regarding even pathogenic microbes like viruses, he deduces that if the biological realm is the product of ID, and if the Designer is the benevolent Jehovah God (a claim not held by all ID proponents), then there ought to be at least some beneficial purpose for at least some viruses.  Dr. Francis applies his biblical worldview to scientific logic as follows:


We serve an amazing Creator who has established a life-supporting microbial-based biomatrix that supports life on earth.  So, it should not be surprising that our Creator uses the smallest but most abundant creature on earth, the lowly bacteriophage virus, to support life.

His ID-based hypothesis has prompted Dr. Francis to ask if and how viruses contribute good in creation.  A summary of his findings is contained in his recent article, “COVID-19, Coronavirus, and Creation Virology.”  Of particular interest are a group of viruses, called bacteriophages, that reproduce on or within bacteria and cyanobacteria (photosynthetic microbes, formerly called “blue-green algae”).  To understand how important bacteriophages are to cyanobacteria, and to life on Earth, we need to review what you may have learned in your school days about geochemical cycling of carbon, particularly the carbon cycle.

The carbon cycle may be portrayed as a picture or model tracing the flow of carbon from reservoirs or “sinks” (in atmosphere, on land and in the oceans) into organic molecules that are the “building blocks” of living organisms.   This conversion of carbon to organic molecules is accomplished by photosynthesis in green plants and other autotrophs.  Through release of wastes and through death of living organisms, carbon eventually “cycles” back to the sinks again. 

Scientific modeling of carbon dioxide (CO₂) fixation into organic compounds reveals that oceanic phytoplankton, including various groups of algae and seaweeds, and cyanobacteria, convert as much CO₂ into organic form by photosynthesis as the total carbon fixed by all terrestrial green plants combined.  The CO₂ fixation by oceanic phytoplankton is a major reason why oceans are able to absorb a significant part of human-generated (anthropogenic) CO₂ and thus, to lessen the increase in atmospheric CO₂ that contributes to climate warming. Researchers estimate that cyanobacteria alone may account for 25% of the total uptake of CO₂ by oceanic phytoplankton.  Thus, cyanobacteria are very important players in helping to counterbalance against rising CO₂ levels associated with climate warming. 

Having established the significant role of cyanobacteria in global geochemical cycling of carbon, it becomes significant that some bacteriophage viruses perform a very important service for cyanobacteria.  Amazingly, bacteriophages can insert genes (segments of the DNA code) into the cyanobacterial genome.  The benefit is life-saving for cyanobacteria that have been “sunburned” by excessive rays of the sun.  Instead of a destructive effect on living cells, here we have viruses being “lifesavers.”  

But there is another role that viruses play, this one directly affecting the path of carbon in the oceanic part of the carbon cycle.  According to Suttle, on average, a liter of ocean water contains 3 billion viruses.  Oceanic bacteriophage viruses facilitate the release of organic carbon from phytoplankton, including cyanobacteria.  When bacteriophages infect the cells of phytoplankton, considered a form of particulate organic matter (POC), these viruses cause cells to split open (lysis) and release C-containing molecules as dissolved organic carbon (DOC).  Ocean studies reveal that viral lysing of cells (POC) to release DOC keeps more carbon in the shallow ocean layer where it is more likely to be oxidized and returned to the atmosphere than if it were to remain part of POC that can sink to greater depths.  This “viral shunting” of carbon away from POC which might otherwise have been eaten by zooplankton herbivores is being much researched by scientists.  Their aim is to predict the influence of phytoplankton photosynthesis and viral shunting on atmospheric CO₂ levels and climate change.

We can see that, based on the hypothesis that God’s creation is good but groaning under sin’s domination, creationist scientists are not surprised that viruses have beneficial functions, even in a groaning creation. Dr. Francis predicts that further studies of viruses may reveal more about their originally intended functions in creation.

Does God Know Me?  Does He Care?
The fact that viruses contribute at least some “good” in this world may not be very heartening to readers who are infected or wonder if they will be infected with COVID-19.  God may still be “on trial” in your thinking.  You may allow that God created “good viruses,” but where is God when the whole world and my life is in such turmoil?  At times like this, we easily tend to view the whole of humanity as tiny specs in the midst of an expansive universe.  Even some who would give intellectual assent to the existence of God might say with one writer, Put yourself in the planetary space, a mere dot, and do you think that the Almighty Maker can have discernment of THEE?  I’m afraid this expression of doubt, aloneness, and hopelessness is increasingly common in our culture today?

F.B. Meyer contrasts the skeptic with the glorious praise of David who as a shepherd had often marveled at the starry heavens: “How absolutely different is the outlook of the Psalmist! He stands under the Eastern heavens, blazing at midnight with myriads of resplendent constellations, and cries:  O Jehovah, my Lord, how excellent is Thy Name in all the earth, who has set Thy glory above the heavens! They are Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers; as for moon and stars, Thou has ordained them.  How great Thou art!  Then he turns to think of man, and says: ‘There must be something more in man than a superficial gaze is competent to discover.  He must surely possess an unrealized dignity and worth, since the great God, the Maker of these worlds, stoops to call him friend.”  That David and God loved each other as passionate friends is evident by reading the Psalms (Psalm 8 and 139 are good examples.).

But the faint-hearted might say, “Friendship with God may be for a David, or a Moses, or an Elijah, but God is not mindful of me, nor would He visit me.”  Please hear F.B. Meyer’s response to that notion, based on Psalm 8: 4 and other Scripture:
What about “Zacchaeus, that the Son of Man should visit his house—is he not a publican?  Yes, but of late he has been restoring his ill-gotten gains… (Luke 19).  What of Simon Peter, that Christ should visit him (a betrayer)?  Ah, but he will one day become the rock-man, the foremost leader of the Church (Matthew 16: 18)!  So [also] does Christ our Lord see what we may become, and he stands at the door of our life, seeking admission.  Let us heed His knock and bid Him come in.”

How About You?
In the midst of this time of uncertainty because of the COVID-19 virus, are you more inclined to look into the world of the unseen, not to find viruses, but to pursue God’s rightful place in the center of your life.  Maybe these days offer a perfect incentive to evaluate your source of meaning and purpose.  If you’ve been ignoring, avoiding, doubting, or critically trying God in your “court of law,” why are you really doing this?  I pray that this article has given you spiritual insight into the greatness and wisdom of God, the grandeur of His creation, and the goodness of His character as reflected in both the biology of viruses and the richness of Scripture which speaks of the God who gave His very best through Christ in order to reconcile us from sin and, if we will respond in faith.  He did this to make us into His friends.  Before you can be a friend of God you need to take Steps to Peace with God.  I pray that you will take these steps.  You may contact me at silviusj@cedarville.edu or enter your questions or responses using "Post a Comment" below.

Acknowledgement:
Thanks to my brother in Christ and former colleague, Joe Francis, for his research on bacteriophages and cyanobacteria; and, thanks to my brother, Mike Naylor, for referring me to Joe's recent work.

Political-Economic Lessons from the "Microcosm"

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges.
                                                – President Barack Obama, July 16, 2012 (Roanoke, VA)

President Obama is right.  Who would deny that we owe much to our parents, family, teachers, pastors, and friends who have taught us by word and example to live virtuous lives and to instill these virtues in our children and associates?   The same is true of our debt to our communities which provide the context within which we have grown and matured (recall Hilary Clinton’s dictum).

Yes, Somebody helped create this unbelievable American system….  Tracing all the way back to the 18th century, we are indebted to our founding fathers and to the European- and African-Americans who fought and died side by side in the American Revolution to win the religious and political freedoms described in the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution.  Having learned from harsh experience, the founders were careful to name the source of our freedom and opportunity.  They viewed themselves as having been

endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…

Powers of government including taxation are derived “from the consent of the governed” not from a monarch such as the King of England.  As we have stated elsewhere in Oikonomia, civil servants are to exercise stewardship of the power and resources granted to them by the governed.  Therefore, President Obama is correct when he says that we “thrive” because of somebody else who invested in roads and bridges.  We have all driven on layer upon layer of asphalt which in turn may have been layered on top of bricks, or even logs from the days of the “corduroy road.”  Taxes and tolls collected by government in the past and present maintain roads and bridges.  But, where does our president go next with his logic?

President Obama continues in his Roanoke speech:

If you've got a business, you didn't build that.  Somebody else made that happen.  The Internet didn't get invented on its own. Government research created the Internet so that all the companies could make money off the Internet.

Here the President seems to confuse the role of steward and master; or, the source of power and the wielder of power.  He suggests, that if you are a businessman or woman, “you didn’t build that” business; the government did because government built the highways on which your goods are marketed, and the internet which supports your communications and transactions. 

If the President’s logic is true, the founding fathers and many Americans have it backwards; and government is not the steward or “public servant” of the citizens from whom governing powers are derived.  Instead, he views government as “master” and originator of our prosperity.  In the President’s view, government is the green plant in the room—it takes the soil, the water, and the sunshine and supplies “food” to the private sector.   Government is the producer (or autotroph) and we, the governed, are the consumers (heterotrophs) who flourish from the benefits it provides.  Hence, “you didn’t build that”, government did.   But wait, Mr. President.  Did you ever study food chains, producers, and consumers in your science classes?

Although analogies always have their limits, a “producer-consumer analogy” may be helpful.    First, it should be obvious that government is not sustained by drawing its sustenance from soil, water, and sunshine.  Instead, the life blood of government is our tax dollars.  What it doesn’t get from taxes, it prints or borrows.  Therefore, because government is not self-supporting, it is not a producer or autotroph analogous to a green plant or algae.  Instead, government is a consumer or heterotroph that must extract its “nourishment” from another source; namely, the governed, and ultimately, the private sector where tax revenue is generated.   The private sector which produces goods, services, and jobs is the producer; government is the dependent consumer.

I tested this relationship in a couple of tiny models of the “real world”, called microcosms (“little worlds”).  Each microcosm is a 1-pint (373-ml) glass pickle jar containing the following:

>   pond water (not quite filling the jar to allow for an “atmosphere”)
>   algae (Spirogyra) – enough to create a light tinge of green
>   pond weed – 1 sprig for food and scaffolding for animal life
>   1 diving beetle
>   2 aquatic snails (1 small and 1 medium size)
>   1  dead plant stem (5-cm length)
>   Countless tiny crustaceans and microscopic organisms in the pond water

(A) "Microcosm"; (B) Snail and diving beetle; (C) Snail and oxygen from algae

Each microcosm was sealed off from the outside atmosphere with cellophane wrap and a rubber band, and placed in a window receiving indirect sunlight.   After 10 days, all populations were still alive. However, the algae was being consumed by snails faster than it could grow—the first hint that the system was not sustainable.

How about oxygen, the vital gas we all need to live?  Can you imagine aquarium animals living 10 days after the air pump was cut off?  However, in our microcosm, the algae (and pond weed) absorbs sunlight and uses dissolved carbon dioxide and mineral nutrients to “photosynthesize” oxygen needed for all life in the microcosm.  No need for an air pump!  The producer algae also photosynthesizes sugars, proteins, lipids, and other building blocks necessary for growth as well as to provide food for the consumers, snails and countless smaller animal forms.

Interestingly, the diving beetle carries its own oxygen in a large air bubble which it picks up at the interface of the water and atmosphere before it dives down and functions underwater.   When the oxygen level in the bubble drops, the beetle returns to the surface for a fresh “air tank.”  Where does this oxygen in the microcosm’s atmosphere come from?   [Right, it comes from the underwater producer algae and escapes to the atmosphere of the microcosm.]

Can you understand that sunlight is the primary driver of the microcosm as it is in the biosphere of Earth?  Without the sunny window, the producer algae would not have photosynthesized the oxygen and food needed for the consumer snails and other aquatic animals.  Unfortunately, the producer algae were unable grow fast enough to provide food for the consumers.   By day 12, consumer snails had eaten most of the algae-- and thus, their food and oxygen supply for the future.

Our microcosm analogy is limited in its ability to represent the Earth’s biosphere.  The small scale of the tiny jar and the simplicity of its food chain make its survival more precarious than the biosphere of Earth.  However, the fate of our overgrazed algae corresponds closely enough to our overtaxed citizens and bloated government to cause us to pause in serious contemplation when we hear Washington asking us for higher taxes so the government can add new programs for “job creation.”  The government can no more “create jobs” than the snails can create more producer algae.  Instead, the government would do well to encourage the real producers of jobs, the private sector.  In our analogy, the government’s role should be to either enhance the growth of algae or reduce its own consumption.

Some in Washington who recognize the value of the private sector (our producer algae) still favor wrong-headed solutions such as “creating jobs” using tax dollars which ultimately come from the private sector (producer algae). However, we should be learning from the bitter lessons of the billions spent on failed “stimulus packages” and from the poor investment of tax dollars on “green industries” that have gone belly-up in spite of these government subsidies.

Again, the natural order of the creation and even in our microcosmic models suggest that subsidizing the system can cause great damage.  Three days after creating several microcosms, I added a “sugar subsidy” to one microcosm in the form of a small volume of dissolved table sugar.   After all, algae produce sugars by photosynthesis, and sugar is a form of food, so won’t sugar help the microcosm to flourish?

Comparison of "Control" with "+Sugar" on Day 14

On day 10 when our “Control” microcosm was still functioning well, the “+Sugar” microcosm had become cloudy due to the presence of billions of bacteria that were thriving on the sugar.  Meanwhile, the algae and pond weed was turning yellow and becoming unable to photosynthesize food and oxygen in the natural way.   Within a few more days, the snails and other animal forms had died, leaving only the diving beetle which survived on the limited oxygen remaining in the atmosphere above.   The “sugar subsidy” didn’t bring prosperity.

Our experiment suggests that there is a natural order in creation in which the population of producers will determine the numbers or biomass of consumers that can live in a given area.  If the consumers over-consume or otherwise destroy the producers (e.g. overgrazing), it is only a matter of time until the system will crash.  Proper stewardship of the creation should conserve the built-in controls that regulate consumer and producer populations.

Although we have seen that consumers are dependent on producers, we should note that consumers also provide “services” that benefit producers.  For example, producers might be protected from overgrazing by consumers (e.g. white-tail deer) when other consumers (e.g. bear, wolf) prey upon the grazers and thereby maintain a limited, healthy population of grazers.  Likewise, many insects, birds, and bats promote pollination of flowers necessary to produce seeds and reproduction.   Consumers are valuable in creation just as “limited government” by the people has its important role.

The order of creation doesn’t justify total elimination of government.  Just as there are mutually beneficial relationships between producers and consumers in creation, so there are legitimate responsibilities of government-- to protect its citizens from invasion, maintain law and order, and ensure just balances in the market place so that job producers in the private sector can grow their businesses in support of a prosperous economy?

So, President Obama is correct when he says we should thank someone else for our success.  But, I’d start with God Almighty from Whom come our rights including ”Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness.”  Then, I’m thankful for godly public and civil servants and workers who maintain law and order and an environment in which entrepreneurs can follow their dreams and “get there” by their creativity.   Thankfully, our founding fathers understood the relationship between government and the private sector, and sought to promote the various roles of each under the Constitution they provided for us.