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… We should leave the door open for further inquiry. If common design explanations, grounded in Scripture, help drive research forward, we should at least welcome this perspective in dialogue.
To read more on the subject of ERVs and common design, see AJ’s more comprehensive article, “Questioning Evolutionary Presuppositions about Endogenous Retroviruses.”

Endnotes

Madalina Barbulescu et al., “A HERV-K Provirus in Chimpanzees, Bonobos, and Gorillas, but Not Humans,” Current Biology 11 (May 2001): 779–83, doi:10.1016/S0960-9822(01)00227-5.
Chris T. Yohn et al., “Lineage-Specific Expansions of Retroviral Insertions within the Genomes of African …

… 40 million years ago. The presence of filoviral sequences in vertebrate DNA also implies that coinfection of filoviruses with retroviruses allows viral RNAs to integrate into the DNA of their hosts. It is important to point out that filoviruses and Bornaviruses were the only families of RNA viruses found integrated into the DNA of vertebrates.1
The reason for this integration is unclear. Research in the area of endogenous retroviruses indicates that the presence of these retroviruses in mammalian cells plays an essential role in placental development.2 It is then possible that the presence of filoviral sequences in vertebrates

We receive a lot of great questions for the I Didn’t Know That! podcast, some of which we are unable to answer due to time constraints. In an effort to address more of your queries, we will occasionally post a scholar’s reply on Today’s New Reason to Believe.
From Ryan in Shimane, Japan:
Recently I have seen more and more atheists using an argument from retroviral insertion as proof that mankind evolved from a common ancestor.
The argument usually states that ERVs (endogenous retroviruses) are inserted randomly into the host’s DNA and that any two species …

… pieces of DNA, called transposons, move around from place to place, too. Retrotransposons are the most common type; they include LINEs (long interspersed nuclear elements), SINEs (short interspersed nuclear elements), and LTRs (long terminal repeats).
Evolutionary biologists believe these various sequence elements originate from a class of junk DNA called endogenous retroviruses (ENVs). Many scientists imagine ENVs are remnants of a retroviral infection, in which biochemical processes incorporate the viral DNA into the genome. Once part of the genome, the retroviral sequences suffer mutations, becoming inactive and leading to the formation of ENVs. These sequences, in turn, spawn LINEs, SINEs …