For almost a century, the field of evolutionary biology has been dominated by the neo-Darwinian research program. The primary hypothesis of this program holds that all species have originated through natural processes by descent with modification from only one common ancestor. On the other hand, the creation science framework postulates independent origins (‘creation’) of baramins with built-in flexible genomes (coined ‘baranomes’) to vary, adapt, and speciate. From the start, baranomes contained a limited number of VIGEs—including ERVs and LINEs. In distinct baranomes, VIGEs may have been located on the exact same position in the DNA (the T-zero position), which then explains why some VIGEs can be found in the same location in genomes of modern organisms independent of the assumption of common descent, for instance in great apes and humans.

The functionality of LINEs is very important to discern between the neo- Darwinian and the creation science framework. If LINEs were without function, and if they were integrated randomly in genomes, common ancestry of the neo-Darwinian framework would be strongly supported. If, on the other hand, LINEs, as shown to be the case, are functional and their genomic integration is strongly regulated and controlled, the argument for common ancestry is nonexistent. The presence of the same VIGEs on the same location in the genomes of distinct species would then boil down to merely an argument of ‘nested hierarchy’, i.e. groups within groups within groups. These groups are based on suites of similar traits, and it is a different way of presenting evolutionary ‘tree thinking’.

The evolutionary explanation for the multitude of ERVs and LINEs present in genomes is that they are supposed to be the remnants of retroviruses that invaded the genomes millions of years ago. Italian brain researchers (1 &2) now provide further evidence that LINEs operate in genomes as VIGEs. That they originated in a distant past as viruses is merely belief, not science.

That we find LINEs with the exact same function in both vertebrates and mollusks is a strong argument that shared retrotransposons, even if they are present in the exact same location in the DNA, do not necessarily imply common ancestry. Rather, their functional presence argues for a front-loaded modular design system to induce controlled and regulated variation. Such mechanisms, which are increasingly identified in the genomes of organisms, witness to the greatness of the Creator, who foreknew the Fall of man and of the worldwide Flood. In His immeasurable goodness, He designed His creatures in such a way that they could rapidly adapt to entirely novel environments and fill every corner and crevice of the earth.

When it is obvious that intelligent design is the only explanation for the existence of this universe then the belief it came into existence by random chance is absurd and only leads to poor science.

1. Terborg, P., The design of life: part 4—variation inducing genetic elements and their functions, J. Creation 23 (1):107–114, 2009.

2. Terborg, P., The ‘VIGE-first hypothesis’—how easy it is to swap cause and effect, J. Creation 27(3):105–112, 2013.