See below.?

Question

Can we determine whether an object is designed without identifying or knowing anything about its designer? For instance, can we identify an object as an ancient artifact without knowing anything about the civilization that produced it?

Answer 1

To some extent, we can. Suppose that a virus were to strike, killing every human being on the planet next week. A million years from now, aliens arrive from another planet and try to figure out what happened here. Buildings, automobiles, telephones, and the other impedimenta of today's existence suggest some sort of intelligent design: there is some structure which appears to serve a specific purpose, and furthermore appears to have been designed for that purpose. Creationists try to apply the same idea to today's life. But life is not made in a factory according to blueprints: it evolves (see my answer to another of your questions). Sometimes, the evolution is in peculiar ways: why do humans have an appendix? Why are the neurons in the retina on top of the photoreceptive cells instead of underneath them (as they are in some other species, and would be in humans if maximum sensitivity were to be achieved)? Why do people get ill? As for ancient artifacts, identification of these as artifacts is not always simple. If one is considering that a piece of rock might be an arrowhead, evidence of tooling would be pretty conclusive, and a thinner neck is certainly suggestive, but if the irregularities don't follow a particular pattern, it's hard to tell whether it might have been used as an arrowhead.

Answer 2

Usually there are more than one indicator that something is artificial. For one, something out of the ordinary, like finding a volcanic rock where there aren't any other volcanic rocks might be an indicator that someone or something dropped it there. It doesn't necessarily mean it's artificially created, but that it has been manipulated by someone or something. That simple fact can eliminate certain possibilities. Then looking at other evidence in the area can help narrow down other possibilities...could it have been carried by a glacier? If the geologic evidence shows that there haven't ever been glaciers in the area, you can cross that off the list....so on and so forth.

Then finding similarities between the object and anything like it from another place and time (time being defined either by carbon dating or geologic stratification, or by what similar objects have been found to be from).

Traceability through multiple types of science is required to provide strong evidence.

Answer 3

Well....... If it's something that couldn't have happened 'naturally' (e.g. smooth, round stones with holes in the middle of them probably weren't created that way ) then the odds on best bet is that they were 'created' by some primitive man (or woman) for some purpose.

Unless, of course, you've been reading too much Erich von Däniken ☺


Doug

Answer 4

Generally, if something is apparently designed to be useful BY SOMETHING ELSE, it's likely to be artificially designed (Axe, hammer).

On the other hand, if something is apparently designed to be useful TO ITSELF, it's likely to be naturally "designed" by evolution (Asp, hippo).

Answer 5

yes we can use RADIOMETRIC DATING to determine when it's created.