Rosa Rubicondior: Creationism Refuted - How Evolving COVID-19 Is Making Creationism Sick

Wednesday, 9 July 2025

Creationism Refuted - How Evolving COVID-19 Is Making Creationism Sick

News, in The Conversation that the latest variant of the Sars-CoV-2 virus that causes COVID-19, XFG, could soon become the dominant variant worldwide, prompted me to ask ChatGPT to construct a family tree for the known variants of the virus, to illustrate the basic principles of evolution that creationists continue to deny.

Construct a family tree of known SARS-CoV-2 variants and explain how this illustrates evolution in progress. Explanation: Evolution in Progress

This tree diagram represents a simplified phylogenetic tree of SARS-CoV-2, showing how the virus has evolved since it first emerged in Wuhan in late 2019.

Each branch point (node) represents a divergence event, where a new lineage (or variant) arose due to mutations in the viral genome. These mutations can affect transmissibility, immune evasion, or severity.

Key Points:

Wuhan-Hu-1 is the original strain, from which all other variants have evolved.
Major Variants of Concern (VoCs) such as Alpha, Beta, Gamma, and Delta arose as distinct lineages with notable mutations.
Omicron (B.1.1.529) represents a significant evolutionary leap, likely due to prolonged undetected circulation or evolution in an immunocompromised host. It has since spawned multiple subvariants (BA.1, BA.2, BA.4, BA.5, etc.).
XBB is particularly interesting as it is a recombinant, meaning it formed from the merging of two different Omicron lineages (BA.2.10.1 and BA.2.75). This illustrates how recombination—a form of horizontal gene transfer—can play a role in viral evolution.
Sublineages like XBB.1.5 and BQ.1.1 evolved from earlier Omicron branches, often gaining mutations that allow them to partially escape vaccine-induced or natural immunity.

What This Shows About Evolution:

Mutation and Selection: SARS-CoV-2 evolves as it replicates, with mutations occurring randomly. Some give the virus a survival advantage (e.g. better transmission or immune escape), and these are naturally selected.
Lineage Diversification: Multiple lineages can emerge simultaneously or sequentially, creating a bush-like tree rather than a single linear progression.
Ongoing Process: Evolution is not a finished story. New variants continue to appear, and some may become dominant depending on factors like population immunity, public health measures, and chance.
Adaptive Evolution: The virus evolves in response to selective pressures—vaccines, immunity, antivirals—demonstrating classic Darwinian evolution in real time.

Creationists, of course, will continue to insist that evolution is something other than a change in allele frequencies within a population. This allows them to exclude readily available examples of evolution in progress—such as the evolution of the SARS-CoV-2 virus—and maintain the claim that evolution (as they privately define it) does not exist.

However, under the scientific definition of 'evolution', the recent COVID-19 pandemic, and the ongoing adaptation of the virus despite widespread vaccination and natural immunity, represents an unambiguous example of evolution in progress.

Furthermore — and this is something creationists must either ignore or redefine — the SARS-CoV-2 genome fits what Discovery Institute fellow William A. Dembski has described as ‘complex specified information’, which he presents as evidence for intelligent design. Creationists are therefore left with a dilemma: either accept that this 'proof' points to divine malevolence in the design of a deadly virus, abandon the notion that complex specified genetic information is evidence of design, or adopt the theologically problematic position that there exists a rival intelligent designer against whom the supposedly omnipotent God of the Bible is powerless.

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