Manus Divina
Manus Divina (pronounced /ˌmænəs.dɪˈviːnə/) is a name given to a hypothesis current in the Second Konabian Empire that purports to explain the widespread distribution of humans and related organisms, in contrast to conventionally understood evolutionary theory. The word comes from the Ancient Tongue, and means something akin to "the Hand of God". Essentially, Manus Divina proposes that some very powerful being or beings, omnipotent or nearly so, tampered somehow with the evolutionary process on various planets to bring about very similar species on them, with the same genetic code. Despite the name, the being in question is not necessarily believed to be a literal god; many proponents of Manus Divina suppose, for example, that the process was controlled by members of some race technologically advanced far beyond any present capabilities.
Formulation
The core idea of Manus Divina is that the prevalence of humanity and its associates on so many scattered planets is due to the intentional intervention of some highly advanced being or civilization, which before humanity rose to existence were able to shape the development of life on diverse planets to ensure that it always resulted in humanity and in certain concomitant organisms. As to the precise technique by which this was done, there are no general claims to understand it, but it's supposed to have probably involved either some sort of artificial selection or perhaps direct genetic engineering, or a combination of both. It's frequently said that Manus Divina involves the artificial control of evolution. Some biologists dismiss this terminology as misleading, but it's not technically incorrect; such artificial measures would, in a sense, still qualify as evolution, in the sense that they have to do with organisms changing over time into different forms; they just wouldn't be evolution by the usual mechanism of natural selection.
While most proponents of Manus Divina believe the responsible party to have been some highly technological race or alliance of races, using mechanisms unknown to the Empire but still completely physical in nature, taking the name for the hypothesis as metaphorical, there are some who in fact believe it to have been an actual god, or gods. These two factions tend not to get along, each accusing the other of improperly appropriating the name of a belief to which they do not truly accord. There also exists something of a middle ground, in a faction that holds that the ones who controlled the evolution of humanity were in fact a civilization who had passed through some sort of technological singularity to become nearly omnipotent and practically divine.
Evidence
Though there is no definitive corroboration to prove Manus Divina, its proponents do point to a number of factors they hold up as circumstantial evidence. The cultural diversity apparent among the humanity on different worlds, they claim, is too great for them to have come from a single recent ancestral stock, and points to their having separately arisen from prehuman precursors. At the same time, however, they point to some frequent technological commonalities that they suggest may have come from documents or devices left behind by the "gods". Most importantly, the supporters of the hypothesis affirm that they have found sections of junk DNA that are clearly of artificial origin, marking mathematical sequences that would have no reason to have arisen there naturally.
Criticism
The Manus Divina hypothesis has been criticized, like most hypotheses addressing the interplanetary question, for being essentially unfalsifiable. Since one is supposing the existence of some entity with vague motivations and capable of almost anything, one can explain away any troublesome data as the work of the "gods". Of course, the idea's proponents counter that just because it's unfalsifiable doesn't mean it's untrue, and claim that it seems to fit the facts better than any other current theory.
The "evidence" cited by proponents of Manus Divina has also come under heavy criticism. The claims based on cultural diversity and technological commonalities are highly subjective and dubious, essentially arguments from personal incredulity rather than anything really scientific. Moreover, they seem mutually contradictory; it makes little sense that the "gods" would leave remnants that would impact humanity's technological development but not their culture. As for the supposed genetic markers, the existence of such mathematical sequences in junk DNA is a result that could certainly be scientifically verified, but one that other researchers have been unable to duplicate, and most scientists (even, albeit regretfully, most of those sympathetic to the hypothesis) conclude that this "discovery" was a result of bad data and wishful thinking.
Comparison with other hypotheses
Perhaps the main feature that sets Manus Divina apart from most other current hypotheses purporting to explain the interplanetary question is that it alone proposes that the humans on different worlds are not actually related—that they arose through similar processes, but have no common ancestors. Most other such hypotheses—transplantationism, the residual scenario, the castaway hypothesis—assume that all of humanity on all worlds can be traced back ultimately to a single homeworld, while Manus Divina maintains that it is the product of separate evolutions. For this reason, Manus Divina is particularly popular among cultural elitists who prefer not to be associated with humans from other planets—though certainly not all proponents of the hypothesis feel this way, and those who don't don't appreciate being tarred with the same brush as those who do.
Manus Divina has given birth to another prevalent hypothesis which purports to go further and specify just who the "god" was whose hand is seen. According to this Manus Humana hypothesis, the race controlling evolution on other worlds is none other than preimperial humanity. Manus Humana has now far surpassed other versions of Manus Divina in popularity, and is perhaps the current favorite theory in Imperial academia.