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Thank you for the response, and question.

Speaking of dense, I am going to give this my best shot, but I’m not sure it will be that good of an explanation. If I knew exactly why and how , I’d probably be a famous scientist.

Here goes. Maybe saying life would cease to exist would be going too far. So let’s say that life would stagnate. That life forms would not ‘improve’ themselves, i.e. evolve since they were not subject to attacks from viruses. It is possible that viruses perform evolution.

Another effect would be overpopulation of species, destroying the food resources. Viruses help keep ‘populations’ down, ensuring propagation of the species in effect by helping to achieve a balance with the available land and food.

To summarize, I think that viruses are a major part of the ‘balance’ and ‘evolution’ of life forms on Earth, and ergo a necessary part. Without them, the balance would be gone, and that would probably have negative effects, including extinction.

Of course, 99% of all life forms that have ever lived on the Earth have gone extinct, but that may be a component of the ‘balance’ of life on this tiny planet as well.