John Paul:
-----
. in all of the experiments we have ever conducted appear to support that there is a barrier. ie bacteria always remain bacteria, even after millions (if not billions) of generations. The same can be said for viruses and every other organism.
-----
Common misconception in that after a new species evolves the old one WILL disappear, or that all of the original population becomes the new organism. Bacteria will continue to exist as bacteria for as long as they are a valid system for survival. Other things evolved from bacteria and moved on to exploit the systems around them in new and interesting ways but that does not invalidate the simple bacteria as a valid solution to survival.
So yes bacteria will always be bacteria up until the time that form becomes invalid for survival then it will die out. But this doesn’t invalidate ToE as there is nothing stopping a different organism evolving from the previous but yet leaving the original unchanged.
As for viruses we know that these can quickly mutate into new strains but these mutations don’t destroy, erase or invalidate the previous version.
™ Version 4.2