February 2, 2025 | David F. Coppedge

ENST: Mars Archaeology as a New Science

Archaeology on Mars? Yes!
This article by published
on ENST explains how

 

This article by CEH Editor David Coppedge was published on January 22, 2025.


Intelligent Design in Action: Mars Archaeology
by David F. Coppedge
Evolution News & Science Today, January 22, 2025

Occasionally in conversations with atheists I ask if a space alien landing on Mars and finding one of our rovers would be justified in inferring intelligent design. Reactions vary from dodging the question to changing the subject. But think about it: any space aliens capable of building an interstellar craft would have to be knowledgeable of the laws of physics and the laws of logic. Such beings would possess superlative engineering expertise including, most likely, electronic communications and programming. They would be intimately familiar with the differences between natural causes and intelligent causes.

To reinforce the point, reverse the roles and think of what human astronauts would conclude if in some future day they land on an alien planet and find metal machinery operating for a function, such as moving about on wheels, scraping away dirt on a rock, and moving a camera into position on the rock for a closer look. No one would ascribe such an artifact to natural causes. No one would report back to the base that the device emerged out of the soil and rocks on the planet. The whole SETI enterprise relies on the ability to distinguish intelligent causes from the forces of nature.

Uncluttered by Biology

I like this question because it is not only easy to visualize, but it arrives at the design inference without any knowledge of the designer. It also puts the context on a world (Mars) uncluttered by Earth’s complex biology. It focuses on the distinguishing marks of an intelligent cause against the background of natural forces like wind, erosion, temperature, static electricity, or meteorites. On Earth, atheists will argue that natural selection allowed humans to evolve sociality and technology to improve their chances of survival. Those distractions are removed when considering machinery on a distant planet. It would be a stretch for any intelligent observer — human or otherwise — to conclude that the designers of Curiosity or Perseverance were trying to survive by natural selection by making such devices.

That human artifacts are profoundly “other” than natural phenomena was emphasized in a comment by Justin A. Holcomb and four colleagues in Nature Astronomy last month. Their title, “The emerging archaeological record of Mars,” points out the novelty of this research field. Since 1971, dozens of artifacts containing complex specified information have been distinguishing themselves from natural phenomena on Mars….

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Comments

  • EberPelegJoktan says:

    Searching for life on other planets (especially on Mars) is like seeing mirages in a desert. Cartoon characters dismayed by the heat see things (fancy car, fountain, ice cream, lake, lemonade stand, swimming pool or waterfall), rushing to it only to find out it’s an illusion. Evolutionists see what they want to see on Mars. It’s part of their “just-so stories”.

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