Did viruses precede other life?

What the fuck?Exactly what sort of selection pressure do you think my individual cells experience?

Over the lifetime of an organism, yes, that's true.Over the lifetime of a population, mutations are copious.

Over the lifetime of a population, it does occur often. According to Molecular Evolution: A Phylogenetic Approach (Page, Colmes; Blackwell Science, 1998), a graduate level genetics text, the average number of synonymous substitutions in mammalian nuclear DNA is about 3.5e-9 per base, per year.There's a lot of bases, and a lot of mammals. 3 or 4 per billion bases every year is a lot of mutations to a population. In fact, viewing it from the perspective of populations is the only way that evolution makes sense. Populations grow and divide; it makes perfect sense to talk about the "lifetime" of a population.This message has been edited by crashfrog, 09-29-2004 02:06 PM

Not universally, and remember, "deleterious" is generally only meaningful in reference to environment. For instance, is a mutation conferring longer, thicker fur advantageous or deleterious?It depends on if you live in the arctic circle or the Sahara desert. No - I'm not certain I have the background to engage you on your main point. I simply wanted to clear up some of your misconceptions.