Reasonable people would agree that a higher resolution picture of an actual Face on Mars would have strengthened an original suspicion of design based on the 1976 Viking photograph. But let’s score the Face.

1976 Viking view: It does sort of look like a carved face, but the lack of detail and shadows keep it from having a very strong resemblence to a face. Thus, I’d give it an Analogy score of 2. In terms of continuity, I don’t see any powerful reason why natural forces on the planet Mars could not have formed what is shown in this picture. I’d give it a Discontinuity score of -5, but because of the lack of detail, I’ll settle for a -4. I don’t see any basis for a Rationality or Foresight score, so I score both these as 0. That gives me a DM score of -0.5. It’s ambiguous enough to keep an open mind, but I lean toward a non-telic explanation.

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Your body is composed of four basic tissues: epithelial, connective, muscle, and nervous. Epithelial tissue is essentially a sheet of cells that is used to cover structures and line cavities and vessels. For example, your digestive and respiratory tracts are lined with epithelial tissue and the very surface of your skin is epithelial tissue. Furthermore, epithelial tissue is used to form all the glands in your body. Could unicellular creatures encode all, or most, of the components that would be needed to form such tissues?

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Yesterday, I received the following e-mail and I thought I would share it (with permission of the person who sent it).

Mike Gene,

Thank you for your book. I am not a biologist, but a computer
programmer with an education in Philosophical Theology. I live in
the Kansas City area where, in ‘06 the debate on this subject became
workplace water-cooler chat in hushed tones; so I started reading
about it with a novice’s interest. I read seven or eight books
penned by Behe, Dembski, Wells, Denton, et al, but couldn’t quite get
a grasp of what ID might offer as an alternative. Intuitively it
makes sense that there are more points of view worth consideration in
this discipline, as in any other . You provided a considerably
detailed background essential to the subject in readable prose that
provides the layman access to the complexities of your profession.
The Design Matrix opened my mind to possibilities formerly
unimaginable to me. I hope both sides of this controversy consider
your methodology.

Someone from Turkey sent this to me as an entry for the contest. There is no bunny, but it’s too good not to share.
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Then go here.

Since this is the month for rabbits, it seems only right to offer a free copy of The Design Matrix?

So here is what you need to do:

First, go here, click on the large version of the book cover, and print off a copy.

Second, take this page and work it into a picture with a bunny (real or fake). I’ll even allow PhotoShopping so you can put those old Easter pictures to work.

Third, send me your picture by March 23, 2008 and put “Contest Photo” in the subject line. The link to my e-mail address can be found here.

Be creative. Have fun. The best picture will be hosted on The Design Matrix and Telic Thoughts blogs toward the end of the month and a free copy of The Design Matrix will be sent out to the winner.

Hey, it looks like a Face:

Suspicions are aroused. We need a higher resolution analysis:

Ah, now that looks like any ol’ mountain. No Face.

But what if the higher resolution analysis had shown this?

Would the original suspicion be strengthened?