Debunking AiG math on ERVs
İ am debunking AiG's math on ERVs.
>1.3 Unreasonable Fixation Rate 1.3.1 The necessary fixation rate and the observations As explained earlier, viral infections are supposedly random, but in humans, 200,000 ERVs are claimed to be in identical genome locations, the second obvious question is what mechanism caused this fixation, and whether it could have happened in a reasonable time frame. This can be easily estimated. To be generous, consider the earliest primate fossils are dated to about 50Mya. With viral infections starting from the onset, this means there is about 1 endogenization and fixation per about 250 years (50M / 200k). Using a standard 25 year generation time, this also means 1 endogenization and fixation per 10 gegenerations.
There are many problems with this math. The biggest problem is why does it have to start at primates? ERVs existed long before then.
Second problem, primates did not originate 50 mya. They originated closer to 65 mya.
Third problem, the average generation time for most primates is closer to ten years. The rhesus macaque starts reproducing at 4 years old, for example and enters menopause at 25. This is all basic knowledge anyone can check in 10 seconds. İ dont have any degrees in paleontolgy, zoology, genetics or any other relevant field, but even İ immediately realized the flaws with their calculations. AiG is lying, as always.
Edit: I remember just yesterday looking theough AiG's website and seeing this text, but nıw İ cant seem to find it. It might also be from Evolution News.