Can the scientific method be used to tell if something comes from the mind of a person or being?  Are you still a scientist if you can rationally, logically, and scientifically determine the difference between a designed system (product of a mind) and one that happens by chance (forces of nature, energy, time)?

SCIENCE studies this difference all the time in these areas:

1. Archeology. Is it a rock or a tool?

2. Crime Scenes (CSI).  Was it an accident, like a slip-and-fall, or murder?

3. SETI.  Was it random, natural noise in space, or a signal from distant intelligence?

4. Forensic Chemistry:  Was the white substance flour or cocaine?

5. ​Environmental Science:  Natural accident or a failure to think about safety?

6. Climate Science:  Natural pattern or human contribution to climate change?

7. Anthropology:  Are humans major or minor agents of geological and geomorphological change?

8. Pathology:  Are you sick from a natural occurrence, or did the doctor leave a tool, sponge, or something inside of you? 

9. Epidemiology: Was the virus a natural consequence of animal evolution, or did it leak from a lab?

10. Politics:  Did the protest outside the nation’s capital form spontaneously, or was it a coordinated mob/insurrection?

11. Agriculture: Natural species or genetically modified organism?

12. Insurance:  “Act of God” or is it your fault?

13. Teaching:  An honest mistake or intentional cheating?

14. Parenting: Accident broke the vase, or did the kids do it?

15. Origin of Life:   Did nature make life on its own 3 or 4 billion years ago? 

One of these does not fit like the rest because scientists are not allowed to have a testable difference in one area of science.

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​If you have other examples in science or life where we are allowed to look for acts of mind (i.e. intelligence), please let us know!