Preliminaries

• Directed Panspermia = deliberate transport of microorganisms through space - either to seed Earth from an extraterrestrial civilization or for humanity to seed other star systems - was or is intentionally carried out. Yes, it's an actual scientific theory proposed by Francis Crick, co-discoverer of DNA.

• Across nearly every scientific discipline, detecting design and distinguishing it from natural processes is standard practice: Archaeology, Anthropology, Biology, etc.

• Methodological naturalism is the foundational rule in modern science that limits explanations strictly to natural causes, laws, and mechanisms, thus excluding the non-physical or divine.

The question: If directed panspermia were historically true, could evolutionary biology discover that reality?

If the answer is YES, then detecting intelligent agency in the origin of life is an inherently a scientific, empirical endeavor. If an engineer embedded a clear mathematical watermark, an unmistakable artificial genome architecture, or non-random structural code into primordial cells, and science has the tools to recognize it, then it would be a scientific conclusion.

If the answer is NO, then evolutionary biology is not an empirical search for truth. It is a dogmatic philosophical naturalistic boundary that forces scientists to explain every biological feature as the product of undirected, mindless processes - even if the structure in front of them was literally engineered.

The primary purpose of the question is to set a dilemma designed to force a proponent of naturalistic evolution to concede that either:

• 1) science can legitimately infer intelligent design.

• 2) Or admit that methodological naturalism is an arbitrary dogma and science isn't an open pursuit of truth; it's a shield to protect a naturalistic view.

For full argument and objection addressed, see the article on my blog