Space Forum / Shuttle / April 2004

I think a general reaction of many people was a realisation how utterly
unimportant all that worthless dogma was. And that's political dogma, not
just religious. That's not to say they became less faithful/determined, but
that they realised some of the smaller details about life weren't quite as
important in the grand scheme of things as they previously thought.

Other things you might wish to consider is Galilaeo's treatment and the
prospect of 'playing god' by terraforming Mars into a second Eden, or by
converting the dead asteroid belt into living O'neil type colonies.

John.

Space exploration to date has been mostly a government op motivated by
equal parts curiosity and national defense spin-offs.

And with the pursuit of science, government financing, and the art of
killing people at will, space exploration has been mostly secular, except
on occasions where the ship comes apart, at which point atheism goes
right out the window.

To the extent that the Creator made the Universe, and man to observe or
respect His works, then I feel that NASA's efforts are in harmony with
man's purpose in the Universe.

It is a little difficult to respond to your post as the meaning of the
term Christian is ambiguous in a political or philosophical sense, since
preachers of Christianity range from literalists to liberal, and have
described NASA as a homosexual enclave spawned by Satan, or
as....believers, in the case of Rick Husband, who was a practicing
Christian and who died in the Columbia accident.  Good death cult
material there.

I suppose you can find some astronauts that would sit around the campfire
and sing "Kum-Bay-Yah".  For my part, the important part is the wonder of
the Universe itself, its size and chemistry, it's origin and evolution,
and yes, the odd aspect that is comprehensible.  This is the boring side
of things, and will not engender particlular fervor among the flock or
lucrative alms either.