21August2008
Presuppositions, We All Have Them
Posted by Hank under: Travels About.
Recently I traveled to the Creation Museum near Cincinnati OH, in Petersburg KY with my friend Jan. Our primary purpose was to determine the feasibility of her company, Anchors Away World Cruise Specialists, conducting tours to the museum. She’s a rambler at heart like yours truly with an affinity for wandering and this was a place neither of us had ever been. Sometimes that’s reason enough, but this little part of God’s creation proved to be full of pleasant surprises.
While touring the museum and surrounding area we stayed at Troy’s Creation Ministry Guest House with Frank and Sue Zitzman. They are very gracious hosts and made our stay with them one of the high points of the journey. Frank has taken the concept of a morning “shake” to a whole new level. Mind you, it’s not homemade biscuits and gravy with a side of grits, but it’ll get you moving in the morning. You can find out more about the Zitzmans and their special ministry at their website.
The creation versus evolution debate was the topic of conversation, in the evening of the second day of our tour, at the Zitzmans. One of the things we discussed was how creationists and evolutionists actually have the same data to consider when forming their opinions, however, their presuppositions determine the conclusions they arrive at.
I shared a story that evening which, I think, illustrates how even prominent scientists, who would claim objectivity in their opinions, have a hard time letting evidence speak for itself.
My personal background includes thirty years or so in which I was a spacecraft operations analyst and Systems Engineer at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, CA, part of California Institute of Technology and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). Over the course of my career there I worked for several contracting companies who supplied technical personnel to design, fabricate, test, integrate, and operate unmanned spacecraft for NASA. I participated in various roles in missions that included Mariner to Mars 1967 and Mariner 8 and 9, the Viking Mission to Mars, and The Voyager Mission.
From NASA’s Viking archives we find: “NASA’s Viking Mission to Mars was composed of two spacecraft, Viking 1 and Viking 2, each consisting of an orbiter and a lander. The primary mission objectives were to obtain high-resolution images of the Martian surface, characterize the structure and composition of the atmosphere and surface, and search for evidence of life. Viking 1 was launched on August 20, 1975 and arrived at Mars on June 19, 1976. The first month of orbit was devoted to imaging the surface to find appropriate landing sites for the Viking Landers. On July 20, 1976 the Viking 1 Lander separated from the Orbiter and touched down… “
In addition, a little background in the spacecraft operations is necessary to set the scene for the incident I am referring to.
My role on the Viking Mission was that of Lead Orbiter Data System Analyst with overall responsibility for coordinating the data analysis, testing, and operations for subsystems that made up that system on the Viking Orbiters. During the long ten month cruise to Mars a number of system tests were performed on the combined Orbiter/Lander pairs of Viking 1 and 2 to determine overall system health and verify instrument calibrations. Part of the calibrations involved taking images of three calibration targets on the Lander and the Untied States flag also affixed to the Lander, and visible to the image system, to verify instrument performance and calibration.
As I remember, the original plan was for a landing of Viking 1 if possible on July 4th, 1976. This anniversary landing would have been a cause for national celebration of achievement and would have certainly been a feather in the missions cap if we were able to pull it off.
There was just one small problem, when Viking 1 arrived at Mars the planet was shrouded in dust storms that made the landing questionable. This was due to a lack of knowledge as to just how severe the winds were at various levels and their effect upon the Lander descent.
Because of this delay, there was an abundance of press coverage that day-to-day discussed possibilities and opinions with such notables as Dr. Carl Sagan as to what would be seen when the spacecraft reached the Martian surface. Dr. Sagan described for the media in great detail how all the surface of the planet would be shrouded in this wind blown dust and the sky would be a rusty pink due to the suspended particles.
Then finally, on July 20, 1976, the Viking 1 Orbiter and Lander separated and the Lander successfully made it’s descent to the Martian surface.
As you can imagine, all the Operations team went into wild celebration. Well, wild for a bunch of engineers, we shouted “Yeaaa” and clapped our hands, that sort of thing.
Almost immediately, the first image ever from the Martian surface began its way back to our waiting team. You will imagine our concentration and excitement as we watched the picture being painted on our monitors. The Lander was white, just as we expected. The United States flag on the Lander was red, white, and blue, just as expected. The Martian surface was a rusty red, just as expected.
But, surprise, the sky we had been told over and over again would be a light pink, was in fact light blue, a steely light blue.
Almost immediately, within a minute or so, a voice came to our hearing instructing the imaging team, “Take that down, take that picture down. The sky cannot be blue. Take the picture down.” The picture was quickly taken off the monitors. Dr. Sagan had spoken.
All the pictures that appeared for view from that time forward had a pink sky (digital photography is easy to massage). In the Viking archives exists today, one lone picture taken from the Martian surface with a light blue sky. The picture is annotated to indicate that the blue sky was due to a flawed calibration.
Was the sky really a light blue? I don’t know and never will. Did we recalibrate the imaging system? No. I heard no one suggest the remedies you would expect in any other science experiment where the data didn’t meet your expectations, check your instruments, take more data, repeat the experiment, etc.
Weather the sky was really light blue or a rosy pink is not really the moral of the story. We’re talking about presuppositions and on this day Dr. Sagan was a victim of his. Presuppositions stated over and over again to a public that viewed him as brilliant and somewhat infallible. After all, he had his credibility to protect.
Hank the Rambler
P.S. Dr. Carl Sagan was also well known for his denial of the existence of G_D who created all things. Dr. Sagan passed from this life and dimension on December 20, 1996 having lived his life based on this denial, another presupposition. You see, in the end, truth and reality will prove all presuppositions either true or false.
