I don't think it is a matter of understanding, but matter of belief. I have difficulties to believe they exist. However, if we assume they exist, and you ask, where viruses come from, I think the only logical answer is, from living beings, because they are not living beings, but replicators that require a living body to do what they are programmed to do.
Of course they come from living beings being parasitic organisms ... you have millions of such organisms in your body .. Many which did not come from your body .. or the body of a human .. some which did .. and in fact it may be said .. in a way .. that you are the parasite ... living of the bacterial host .. bacterial cells in your body out numbering human cells by a factor of 9 to 1 ... nine (9) bacterial cells for every one (1) human cell.
Now .. a human cell is much bigger than a bacterial cell so volume wise you are more human than bug .. but .. just saying .. you living in a symbiotic relationship with your bacteria .. who .. without which .. you die very quickly .. and so do they ... and so you need each other.
What you don't need is a virus .. an organism who doesn't benefit the host .. and sometimes kills the host .. in that case suiciding itself and future progeny .. which is why viruses have evolved such that the host will survive the encounter .. and while you can catch a virus from another human .. this is not to say that the virus itself came from a human .. the original one. .. originally this molecule or "virus like molecule" came from nature .. not another organism because there were no other organisms .. just proto nucleic acids .. which again are not nucleic Acids .. as some of the folks expect to come wandering out of a lab .. if you read my posts to others... that is not what we are looking for. .. we are looking for the precursors .. and so you have these blocks --- these days labled A-C-G - T. and these blocks link together in chains known as RNA .. the RNA links up like Zipper with another RNA and you have DNA.
Now - Covid - apparently (according to Jeffery Sachs who would know - and in fact was the Guy tasked to know by the Biden Administration) we have a scientist in our Defense biowarfare division - who can put these blocks in any order you like .. there are about 30,000 blocks in a virus. Just tell him which order you like and he will produce that virus for you.
Now .. 30,000 blocks is a long chain .. is going to take nature a long time to produce something that big .. and is going to be many shorter chains interacting to form these bigger chains .. .. whome smaller chains had to interact with to produce them .. which is why point to plasmids and prions in nature .. these being the next rung down .. simple sacks of nucleic Acids that provide a function .. when gobbled up by bacteria .. that will give a bacteria a new trait .. like in a video game .. such as the ability to degrade a new food source .. like hydrocarbon contaminants in soil and groundwater .. an ability in which I am a subject matter expert .. Bioremediation and alternative remediation technology specialist .. at your service -- though I don't do that no more .... saving the world does not pay very well unfortunately .. Biological Corrosion in oil pipelines .. that pays much better.
So -- Primative life we find in nature --- these prions and plasmids .. these were molecules that a long time ago associated themselves with primative human life molecules .. NOT - Primative human organisms -- but the molecules which would go on to become the building blocks.. itself made of these building blocks .. which are interacting in all kinds of ways .. producing all kinds of "life active compounds" for lack of a better term .. trying not to Jargon or over technical terms.
So what you would have is these proto cells forming .. simple - short - RNA chains forming .. interacting with other RNA chains that are also forming .. one chain might be ACTGAG .. the other might be GTGAAA -- and they hook up teo form A + B=C
Now C finds itself surrounded by this primordial Goo . which is actually serving as a proto cell membrane -- a selective membrane letting some molecules through but others out ... keeping some of these ACTGAG chains from entering but letting others GTGAAA in.
So now now you have a situation where C is encasulated - A can get in but B can not .. and so C+A = D .. a new molecule .. D +A = E .. another new molecule .. but one that is growing a certain way .. and there are other nucleic acids encapsulated in cell membrains that are also growing similarly .. but maybe letting in and keeping out different molecules .. membranes with different selectivity in different places but .. going to be alot with the same selectivity.
Now .. along side ... we have Z .. which was made by A+ H + who knows what else .. forming Z-! now Z-! manages to get through the selective membrane and interact with C-! .. in a way that breaks that splits the chain .. creating a nucleic mess .. but also new RNA chains .. this kind of acting like a proto virus .. or .. like a plasmid .. which goes in and links up with C-! forming C-! +Plasmid .. giving the chain a new ability . the Plasmid (P) having the ability to interact with the carbon hydrogen bond in the hydrocarbon .. catalysing the reaction with oxygen as the terminal electron acceptor turning C10H22 into 10 CO2 + 11 H2O .. and the energy produced goes to form this stuff we call ATP which is the energy molecule of the cell .. so we have a cell that is able to harness microbiological electricity in this way. call it ultra micro biological ..
We see this in nature -- some say .. thats not life .. I say .. OK .. but it is proto life .. the building blocks on which life is built .. interacting in ways that are generating new and more complex molecules .. nucleic acid molecules .. short RNA strands .. each having a different function .. but able to combine with each other to create longer chains .. and increasing in function. ..this process directed by specific membranes .. some which will move within a natural setting .. move around and interact with other of these proto cells which are becoming more and more complex through selective interaction.
It is this obsevered natural process .. which forms part of the basis for my claim of intelligent design .. an invisible hand of sorts directing the dance .. just in the way everything is designed .. .. these are design functions we are looking at .. like someone programmed an algorithm .. and so the system operates according to the rules coded into that algorythm .
