The "Ask the Experts" question and answer section in the July 2004 issue of Scientific American fielded a question about the program called SETI, the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (p. 120). The question posed was: "What kind of patterns does SETI look for?"

The answer, given by Peter R. Backus, programs manager at SETI, is a good example of how adherents to the evolutionary faith continue to miss the obvious even when they are looking for it.

The goal of SETI is to find signs of intelligent life beyond earth by monitoring light and radio waves hitting earth from space and searching them for patterns. Their reasoning is that humans cannot be alone in the universe and for them it is a virtual certainty that life has begun and evolved on other planets, perhaps even to the point of being able to broadcast radio signals. Since only a living, intelligent being can consistently make and broadcast signals that are nonrandom or coded, finding patterns would be the first tangible evidence for the existence of life outside of earth. For SETI followers this would also be proof of their faith that earth is not unique and that evolution has occurred elsewhere in the universe and not just on earth.

It is ironic that, while specifically looking for signs of intelligent life, "SETIans" have missed the obvious implications of the complex patterns of life right here on earth. Specifically, that the many non-random patterns which characterize life and living things on this planet are themselves signals that there is an intelligent designer behind these patterns.

The evolutionary faithful are unmoved by this argument, yet it is exactly this argument which they offer as the rationale for the search for life beyond earth. Some will spend their lives looking for a sign of intelligent life behind the patterns of radio emissions from space, but never apply this same reasoning to life on earth. To do so would lead them to a totally different conclusion about the origin and meaning of life than they currently hold.

In his short answer, Peter Backus even admits that at SETI they really don't even know what kind of pattern to look for. Should they look for a binary code of ones and zeros such as is used in our computers, or a symbolic language or pictures? He observes that "other encoding schemes have been suggested, but in truth scientists do not know what to expect. That is part of what makes SETI so interesting."

Their faith tells them life is out there. Their logic tells them generally what to look for—even that is uncertain. So they keep listening for the right signal, either unaware of, or willfully deaf to, the chorus of signals directed at them here on earth by God saying, "I am here, I am here, I am here." But, sadly, they have neither ears to hear nor eyes to see, and so continue to miss the obvious even while searching for it.