The Organosubstrate of Life: A Creationist Perspective of Microbes and Viruses

In this paper a new concept in creation biology, the organosubstrate, is described. I propose that microbes and viruses were created as a link between macro-organisms and a chemically rich but inert physical environment, to provide a substrate upon which multicellular creatures can thrive and persist in intricately designed ecosystems. Consistent with this perspective, microbes and viruses a) are abundant in all ecosystems, b) are separated by discontinuity from macro-organisms and discontinuity separates the major groups of viruses and microbes, c) are designed for symbiotic relationships with both macro-organisms and other microbes and viruses, d) extract inorganic minerals from earth minerals, e) participate in the cycling of all elements and compounds important in macro-organismal biology, and f) effect bioremediation. The organosubstrate concept explains organelle/bacterial similarities used as evidence of evolutionary endosymbiosis theory. The organosubstrate concept also suggests that microbe and viral pathogenesis is a relatively recent and rare deviation from original created function. Evidence of this includes the rarity and lower fitness of pathological forms and the late addition to and modification of symbiotic design features in microbes and viruses. The Organosubstrate concept is an imminently testable, well-supported concept in biology. INTRODUCTION Microbes and viruses perform essential roles in all ecosystems of the biosphere. However, creationists have published few papers in microbiology [3,4,7,9,25,26,35,53]. Perhaps this is due to the fact that microbes (which we define in this paper as bacteria, algae, protists, and unicellular fungi) and viruses are not explicitly mentioned in scripture and they are often associated with parasitism and pathogenesis, activities that are inconsistent with God’s perfect pre-Fall creation. However, our understanding of microbial function remains very incomplete; in fact, many microbiologists believe that we have only discovered a fraction of all the microbes and viruses that exist on earth. In addition, in contrast to their well-known destructive nature, microbes and viruses perform many beneficial activities in ecosystems and in symbiotic partnerships with all biological organisms. Correspondingly, evolutionary biologists believe that eukaryotic cells were derived from an ancient symbiotic relationship involving bacteria and primitive eukaryotes. This theory is referred to as the seriel endosymbiotic theory (SET) [31] and was popularized by Lynn Margulis who proposed that eukaryotic cell organelles were derived from ancient prokaryotic symbionts. Some creationists have characterized the data supporting the endosymbiotic theory as weak and mostly inferential, yet the theory cannot easily be dismissed because the microbial world is replete with examples of symbiotic relationships. Therefore, perhaps because of our fervent attention to the debate, we have missed a larger and broader story about the role of microbes and viruses in creation. THE ORGANOSUBSTRATE CONCEPT I propose that microbes were created as an organosubstrate; a link between macro-organisms and a chemically rich but inert physical environment, to provide a substrate upon which multicellular creatures can thrive and persist in intricately designed ecosystems. Viewed in this context microbes and viruses could also be thought of as a single, complex, massive, multicellular, multitaxon organism with incredible and powerful life supporting properties. Just as tissues and organs cooperatively divide the many tasks in the body of a macro-organism, so microbes and viruses cooperatively divide the many tasks macro-organisms need performed to survive in this world. This paper reviews the biological data that supports the organosubstrate concept.