Arrowheads

“I appreciate your willingness to help me today,” said Richard, sweat dripping down his cheek. “This
would have been a dreadful project without you.”

Mark looked up from his digging. “Well, I’ve got to be useful for something. You see, I’m not the
handiest of fellows, but I can dig. Besides, I like helping neighbors,” he said through a cheerful smile.
“The good news is that it looks like we should be done with the trenching soon and can start laying this
pipe,” nodding his head in the direction of the stack of PVC pipe piled on the inside of Richard’s back
yard fence.

After a few more minutes of digging Mark noticed that Richard was studying something in the 8-inch
deep hole he had been working on. Stooping down, Richard started digging with his hands. “Now this is
interesting,” he spoke as he held in his hand a small, triangular-shaped stone. “Arrowheads!”

Mark came closer to examine the find. A half-dozen similar pieces were peeking out of the dirt.

“I would never have expected to find arrowheads in my own garden. Imagine that! Someone had been
here long before us,” Richard said looking up at Mark.

“Who?” queried Mark.

“I don’t know. Weren’t there Hohokam in this area long ago?”

“I’m not sure about that, but what I do know is that you can’t just say that those are arrowheads unless
you can say who made them.”

“Well no, these are definitely arrowheads, regardless of who may have made them.”

“Wrong. If you can’t say who made them, you can’t say that they are, in fact, man-made. Doing so
would be making a false assumption about the origins.”

Richard was stunned. “No, just look at these. Someone made these,” holding the items up to Mark’s
face. “And look, here’s a piece of pottery, too. These are man-made. How is that not obvious?”

The good feelings that had existed between the two neighbors were starting to be strained. Mark did
not relent. “Sure, they appear to be man-made, but that can often be an illusion. Just because
something appears to be man made doesn’t mean that it is.”

“What? Like those things I dug up could just occur naturally?”

“Natural forces can be surprisingly powerful. And there’s so much more that we have yet to discover.
It’s all so fascinating, and it’s important to keep an elevated mindset when approaching these questions.
What we do know is that some things that appear to have been designed are actually the results of
natural processes. It would be an amateurish mistake to just assume something to be man-made unless
you can answer the problem of who made it.”
Richard realized that he was about to lose his cool. And realizing that in doing so he would probably also
lose his helper he was able to somewhat contain his frustration. Fortunately for Richard, another
neighbor entered through the gate to the back yard.

“Hello!” Ben called out. “Sorry I’m late. How’s the project coming along?”

Ben perceived an awkward silence between the two neighbors. Mark, however, was less impeded by
the awkwardness of the situation. Apparently energized by his having found an irrefutable argument,
Mark seemed eager to share his brilliant thought with another listener. “We were just discussing how
natural processes are so powerful that they can sometimes appear to have been designed. And natural
processes can create things that can falsely appear to pattern-seeking mammals like ourselves to have
been designed. Specifically, these stones that Richard dug up over here have the appearance of being
man-made; however, we can in no way make that assumption.”

If Ben was surprised by the brazenness of Mark’s assertation he did not show it. “Oh, how interesting!”
he exclaimed, examining the stone pieces. “Why yes, these do appear that they could be man-made.
But that’s just an illusion, you say?”

“Absolutely”, replied Mark. “At least, logic does not permit us to conclude that they are man-made.”

“And why is that?”

“Well, because we don’t know who made them.”

“So, you’re saying that we must know who made something before we can conclude that it was in fact
made?”

“Precisely! That’s the only way to really be certain, in any case.”

“How do you figure?”

“Of course, this is a fact this is not obvious to people who haven’t had their thinking elevated by a true
understanding of the power of natural processes. Once a person understands how powerful these are
he will not right-away conclude that any particular thing is man-made unless its maker is known.”

Ben thought for just a moment. “Well, Mark, these are some powerful insights you have shown.
Clearly, you have put a lot of thought to this.”

“Oh, you have no idea,” replied Mark. “I have grappled with these problems for much of my life. Most
people are content to see that things are but don’t make the effort to think about why.”

While Mark had been expounding, Ben had pulled a small notepad from his back pocket and had written
on it. He presented the sheet to Richard and asked, “How many questions do you see on this page?”

“Two,” replied Richard.

Ben then showed the page to Mark. “Do you agree that there are two questions here?” The page
contained these words:

WAS THIS THING MADE?

WHO MADE THIS THING?

“Yes and no,” replied Mark. Richard’s face revealed that he was confused that there could have possibly
been any other answer than what he had given. “You see,” Mark continued, “the obvious answer
would have been to merely look at the page and to have seen two questions. That is perhaps how an
English teacher may have read it. However, we are capable of looking for the deeper meaning, not
simply the obvious.” Mark paused to make sure his listeners were grasping the weight of his thought.
“And the deeper investigation shows that these are really two parts to the same question.”

“You truly have a dizzying intellect,” stated Ben, shaking his head mildly as he crossed his arms.

Pleased at this compliment, Mark continued with even more energy, “To answer the second question is
to also answer the first. That is, once the maker of a thing has been identified, then we necessarily
know that the thing has been made. For example, your wristwatch states the brand Timex. And
because we know that the Timex company made the thing, we simultaneously know that the thing was
made. Again, although they appear to be separate questions, they are really two parts of the same
question.”

“And does that logic go in the opposite direction?” asked Ben.

“What do you mean?”

“Does knowing that the thing was made also tell us who made it?”

“Well, no. Not exactly. But the point is that to conclusively state that a thing was made requires us to
know the maker.”

“Oh, I think I understand,” offered Ben, nodding his head slowly. “Like your phone.”

“Yes, Samsung.”

“And your shoes.”

“Nike.”

“And that shovel in your hands.”

Mark paused. He searched the shovel to find a brand or some kind of marking. The handle was well-
worn and had been likely been sanded down once or twice during its lifetime. The metal head was
clearly old, and if it had at one time indicated the name of its maker, that name had worn away years
prior.

“This one doesn’t show the name of the company,” said Mark. “Too old, probably. Must have been
made before laws required to country of origin to be displayed on the product.”

“So, you would agree that the shovel was man-made?”

Mark looked slightly embarrassed, then amused. “Ha ha! You caught me! See, even I can slip up when
I’m not careful. What I should have said is that because I do not know the maker, I cannot conclude that
this was man-made.”

For the first time Ben appeared to be somewhat confused. “Are you saying that there is a chance that
this shovel came about by natural processes?”
“Well, there’s always a chance…”

“Really? And what natural processes could have possibly led to the creation of a shovel?”

“Be careful with how you use the word ‘creation’,” cautioned Mark. “Natural processes are more
powerful than many people would give them credit for. Just because I personally cannot identify such a
natural process does not mean that one won’t eventually be discovered. And it also does not mean that
what appears to be a shovel in my hand was not the result of some yet-to-be-understood process.”

“Indeed,” replied Ben with a slight grin. “And so what exactly do you hold in your hands? Part of it is
metal and part of it is wood.”

“Yes, yes. At least, it appears to be metal and appears to be wood.”

“Steel, most likely,” said Ben, pointing at the spade. “And where would you say that this sample of
metal comes from?”

“From nature, of course. That’s been my point all along. Anyone with even a basic familiarity of the
periodic table will see that it is full of different types of metals, all naturally occurring from natural
processes. For example, the symbol Fe represents iron, which is used to make steel.”

Ben held back from allowing himself a grin and instead raised his eyebrows slightly. “There’s that make
word again. But let’s not dwell on that,” he dismissed with a wave of his hand. “Let’s instead talk about
metals. Yes, they occur plentifully in nature, but not in the form you’re holding in your hands.

“Normally,” Ben continued, “metals are found along with other minerals in a form called ore. To
separate the metal from the minerals, however, requires the metal to be extracted from the ore,
typically through a series of chemical processes. Different extraction processes are used depending on
the metal being extracted, its reactivity, and even the chemical form of the ore (for example, Zinc in a
sulphide ore could require a different process than zinc found in a carbonate ore). Only after the metal
has been extracted can it then be refined, hardened, combined with other metals to create an alloy, and
formed to make a useful tool. Which of these sounds like a natural process?”

“I suppose,” began Mark, “that we could find examples where metal has naturally separated from the
minerals.”

“Like gold nuggets?” offered Ben.

“Yes! Like gold nuggets! Nature already did the extraction on those.”

“That may be true. But small clumps of metal found in nature is a much different situation than a fully-
formed steel spade.”

“Ah, but let’s not be too hasty to underestimate the power of yet-to-be understood natural processes.
You see…” Mark stopped himself. The pitiful, disbelieving glare coming from Richard told him that he
needed to re-think his response.

“Let’s talk about the handle now,” said Ben. “What would you say the handle is made of?”

“Why are you asking me all the questions?” Mark was sounding less confident than he did earlier.
“Oh, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to put you in the position of being interrogated. How about we try this?
To me, this handle appears to be made of wood. Would you agree?”

“Yes, it does appear to be wood.”

“And where does… Um, I mean, wood comes from trees. Are you aware of any exceptions to that?”

Mark shook his head.

“And we all know that trees have at least three basic structures—roots, trunk, and branches. A lot of
wood used by men comes from the trunk, but could also be from large branches. The piece of wood in
that shovel is not a full tree. We know this because it does not contain the structures of a tree—there
are no roots attached to it, no discernable trunk, and no branches. It is not a tree, just a piece of one.
Trees occur in nature, but a piece of wood like that comes from a man-made process, not a natural
one.”

“But branches naturally fall from trees, and trees fall over and the trunks eventually deteriorate into
pieces,” Mark contradicted.

Ben grinned again in a friendly way. “Mark, what you said is true. But this is like the metal discussion.
Yes, pieces of tree occur naturally, but pieces of tree don’t form themselves into a handle exactly five
feet in length, with a uniform diameter top to bottom that has been shed of its bark, sanded, and easily
fits into a man’s hands. Furthermore, please explain the natural process that will take such a refined
piece of tree and then connect it, with a naturally-occurring metal rivet, to a fully-formed steel spade?”

“Look,” said Mark, seeing where the discussion was leading, “I may not have all the answers, but we
can’t rule out natural processes unless we can identify the maker.”

“Really?” Richard, having been on the sideline for the last several minutes now jumped into the
conversation. His time out had allowed him the luxury of being able to listen to the discussion and
process what was being said. Now he had something to say. “Deep down inside of you do you really
believe that this shovel could possibly have come together in a natural way? Not only is there is there
no evidence that the components could have occurred this way naturally, but there is no known natural
process that could have brought all the components together.

“Meanwhile, there are an abundance of examples of shovels that are man-made, even by your
requirement of knowing the maker. We could choose to drive down to the hardware store right now
and see a few dozen examples of shovels—some nearly identical in design to this one, some with
different materials, some with longer handles or shorter handles, some with wider spades or narrower
ones—but all of them man-made. One hundred percent. And we could shop online for thousands more
examples. And there are merchants all around the world selling shovels—all of them man-made.
Shovels are man-made. I could show you a million examples!”

“But that doesn’t mean,” Mark insisted, “that nature could not also do something like that.”

“Mark,” said Ben. “I perceive that you’re trying to defend territory.”

“I’m afraid I don’t understand your meaning.”

“Your unwillingness to concede a point, even when the evidence against it is overwhelming and there is
no tangible evidence in favor of it, is typical of someone trying to defend ideological territory. This
happens because the defender feels that he has to guard a doctrine or dogma. As a result, not only will
he repel direct attacks against the dogma itself, but he will also defend against any ideas that might
come within a visible distance to the intellectual territory he has determined to defend. If he doesn’t
defend against those distant perils, he fears that his dogma itself may be threatened.

“Richard has made a solid case that an object like the one you’re holding only occurs through man-made
means. And although you have no real evidence to the contrary, you’re reluctant to acknowledge his
point because if you allowed that something could conclusively be identified as man-made without
knowing the maker would, I presume, open your dogma to attack by a similar line of reasoning.

“But let’s consider one more aspect of this,” continued Ben. “How do we know that this is man-made?
he asked, gesturing toward Richard’s house.

Mark did not hesitate. “Oh, well I know that every house in this subdivision was constructed by Aramco
Builders.”

“No, not the entire house. This.” Ben stepped closer to the house, pointing with more emphasis.

“The wall?”

“No, the color on the wall. The paint.”

“Hmm. We could likely figure out the maker.”

“Come again?”

“I said,” replied Mark, “that we could likely figure out who made the paint. There’s probably a leftover
can in the garage or something.”

“Now isn’t that interesting?” said Ben, arms now folded and his head gently nodding. “Do you see what
just happened?”

Mark appeared confused.

“I could have had you repeat that one more time, but twice is enough to make the point. You clearly
presumed that the paint was man-made. And why shouldn’t you? Exterior house paint doesn’t make
itself. Professional painters only use paint (even if it contains natural ingredients) that has been
prepared, mixed, tested, packaged, etc. in man-made processes.”

“But there’s still a chance that we could identify the maker. Richard, do you have any old paint cans in
your garage or shed?”

Ben smiled. “But that’s the point, isn’t it? As of right now none of us have any idea who might have
made the paint, but even without that piece of info we feel confident that it was, in fact, made. You
started with the presumption that the paint was man-made, which is why you wanted to look for
evidence of the maker. And what would finding that evidence tell us? The can of paint might tell us the
name of the company and other details about the substance itself, but we already know that it must be
man-made otherwise you wouldn’t have bothered suggesting that we look for any leftover paint. In
other words, we all agree it is possible to conclude that some things are man-made even without
knowing the maker.”

Mark did not relent. “But if only you understood the power of natural processes.”

“I know.” Ben nodded with a friendly smile. “That’s probably as far as we’ll get today. But let’s have
another look at those arrowheads.” Richard handed one of the objects to Ben. “Oh, yeah, look at the
knapping on these edges.” Ben gently ran his finger across the scalloped shaping on the edges. “That’s
not easy to do, even with modern tools.”

“Speaking of modern tools,” interrupted Richard, “how about we use ours to finish this project?”

The neighbors smiled at each other, set aside the debate, and picked up their tools.