->> The viral vectors used in GE are designed to enable
>> genes to cross species
>> barriers. ...
>
>Thanks Jean-Claude, I should have remembered that
>viruses are used in some genetic splicing techniques.
>However, that is something engineered by man to
>accomplish "the unnatural". If it were a common thing
>in nature, then we'd have all kinds of variations we
>don't see, wouldn't we?

yes  ,we don't see them  because it is  like a new idea that you can
formulate in your brain ,to have effect you still need to put it in
practice,   the idea  need to take a visible form.
Many changes of Dna will not have a following if not usefull once expressed
or if unrealisable, unexpressable  at the moment.
The whole idea of selection is missunderstood , there is no need for the
carrier of a certain combination of genes to die for its gene to not be
passed on to next generation. and vice versa the sexual mixing of genes is
not the only way to pass on certain combinations of genes.
I am proposing that any experience lived by an individu during his lifetime
is somehow recorded in the genes ,so the dna might not be as fixed as we
have been made to believe.
It is also questionning the whole evolution idea that species are evolving
in a linear fashion. There is no link between species that have ever been
found because there is none.
how evolution can be reconsidered.
think about the people skin colors all over the world . They have been
classified in races but if you could put all the nuances of color ranging
from lighter to darker of all the peoples in the world in front of you  you
will observe a continuity that will make you unable to determine a race.

species are like races in fact there is a continuity in the differentes
possibles combinaisons of gene but not all of them will surface to take
form.Most of them will disappear before they had a chance to be expressed.
Species are like volcanic  islands in an archipelego,  they seems to   pop
out  apart from each other but underneath the surface of the water they are
all attached to the same body , they are one mountain with many summits and
farther,  the base of this mountain is attached to a continent and all the
continents form only one body.
But from our point of view on the surface they seems to be differentes
species.

We might be able to reconcile creationnists and evolutionnists for good with
this new paradigme.

One island don't becomes an other island thru evolution, they, on their own
,  evolve ,their fauna and flora  change with time ,they  rise and sink  but
they share the same genes potential . Birds could be like viruses travelling
from one species to an other proposing some seeds to the other ecosystems
,some will do wonder,  others will grow timidely and others will not have a
chance to sprout.
in that view
can you consider birds as invaders disturbing the peace of the place ? what
are we really doing when intervening in that process . what kind of brutal
rearrangement of ecosystems  are we imposing with antibiotics , vaccinations
and alike.?
All those medical interventions seems necessary because we forget to
consider that viral activity is not ALLWAYS pathological .Most of viral
activity could be symptomless .
The peoples who had tried to  removed any foreign molecules ( too far
removed from the genetic expectation of the species to encounter them in
such quantities) from the diet ( the main way to be exposed to foreign
molecules) like peoples trying the instinctive regulation of eating ,have
experienced symptoms of viral "infection" in such a mild way  that the virus
could not be seen as an ennemy anymore
.
Especially because of the improvment of health experienced after each viral
activity.
Not only the experience is not unpleasant but also lead to a new sens of
well being like maybe a snake might feel after shedding its old skin.

Also long term  instinctive eaters have experienced many time that the
introduction of a foreign molecules ( cooked foods are considered carrier of
foreign molecules ) in the midst of a mild viral infection , is enough for
the symptoms to become suddenlly louder ,  carried away , to go off the deep
end. The removal of the faulty food is enough to calm down the bolting
horse.
The same have been observed with autoimmunes symptoms.


>Of course, maybe that's how
>evolution takes place.....

Yes evolution works that way and many other ways.


from god point of view everything is possible but not everything is
reasonable, acceptable  at a specific point in  time and space.

jean-claude