Beware what You Read: When Science becomes Pseudoscience

With all of the current excitement about Mars I thought I'd look for a few good websites to direct people to. While searching the web, I was quite surprised to find websites dedicated to the "Face on Mars" and ancient Martian civilizations. Clearly pseudoscience is alive and well and inquirers need be skeptical!

It all started when an earlier Mars orbiter returned a slightly fuzzy image where a play of light and shadow made the area look like a giant face peering up from the Martian sands. On this single image the whole "religion" of ancient Martian civilizations began. A few years later, when Mars Global Surveyor, with higher resolution cameras returned an image of the same exact area of the "face." This image was clear and crisp and there was clearly no face. Most people thought that would put an end to the whole nonsense but we were way too optimistic.

Those who wanted to believe in ancient civilizations on Mars simply continued finding "evidence" in poor quality images. Somehow on the strength of these images, some of these believers even conjured up a name of a god and connected it with ancient Egypt! As soon as scientists tried to debunk the nonsense, they were all accused of conspiracy.

One man who knows very well the frustrations of trying to deal with such pseudoscience is Dr. Allan Treiman from the Lunar and Planetary Institute. "the most generous thing I can say is that many can't be disproved because their claims are so nebulous. Their belief in ancient Martian civilizations has absolutely nothing to do with verifiable data about Mars, either from telescopic or spacecraft observations. It is a religious faith, a fervent hope that some parental force in the galaxy can fix humanity's problems and let us live happily ever after. "

That would all seem pretty harmless except that the website owners promote themselves as skilled scientists and investigators. When I challenged a few of them for their credentials only one responded, he was an insurance claims investigator. We'll be sure to call him if the Mars Rovers ever collide! On the serious side these people present their beliefs as sound science and it's anything but. Dr. Treiman added "Their claims of scientific proof are only from picking factoids about Mars and distorting it to fit their beliefs. When confronted with when presented with contradictory data, they deny the data and start mumbling about great NASA conspiracies."

These believers accuse NASA of hiding the evidence of ancient civilizations on Mars. Dr. Treiman answered that charge as well. " Can they really believe that NASA could engineer a conspiracy to suppress proof of Martian civilizations, a conspiracy stretching over decades and involving tens of thousands of people? But they will respond that NASA's seeming current incompetence is a ruse to discredit the idea of a conspiracy. The proof of a conspiracy is the absence of evidence for one. Truly pitiful."

It is obvious that the people who believe in ancient Martian civilizations will continue to do so. But scientists like Dr. Treiman hope that the public will learn to discern true science from pseudoscience. Just because it's on a website, doesn't make it true! If you are interested in the current missions to Mars, here are a few good websites we recommend you visit:
mars.jpl.nasa.gov/
www.planetary.org/learn/missions/marsmissions.html/
cmex-www.arc.nasa.gov/MarsNews/Missions/Missions.html

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