In “Water on Mars: Materialism’s Shroud of Turin” (Evolution News & Views, August 5, 2011), David Klinghoffer muses on the “water on Mars” cult:
The news in today’s Science about water on Mars and with that the consequent possibility of Martian microbial life — how many times have we heard this before? — offers what might be the materialist’s Shroud of Turin.
Actually, there is a lot more to be said for the Shroud of Turin. The Shroud exists. If water on Mars were like the Shroud of Turin, we would know it existed, but wouldn’t know if life resulted.
The question of life on Mars requires extremely generous assumptions about the origin as well as the subsequent evolution of life. Materialists assume that if you’ve got some water, life will result. So if there is life on Mars, it would make all the difference.
Klinghoffer, an Orthodox Jew, notes,
Actually, there’s better scientific evidence that the Shroud of Turn is the burial cloth of Jesus Christ than that life exists or has existed on Mars. After all, there is at least debatable evidence for the former but not as yet one single iota for the latter.
Sort of what we were trying to say, but …. also …
If the Shroud were like water on Mars: A whole bunch of people would be devoting themselves to looking for a Shroud of Turin that they are sure must exist.