Today in History 1968
On Christmas Eve 1968 the crew of Apollo 8, after recieving the instruction “Say something appropriate” from mission control, transmitted the following message while in orbit about the moon…:
William A. Anders:
We are now approaching lunar sunrise. And, for all the people back on earth, the crew of Apollo 8 have a message that we would like to send to you.In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
James A. Lovell, Jr:
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.Frank Borman:
And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close, with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good earth.
They were of course sued by Christian hater and serial suer Madilyn Murray O’hara, who habitually attacked anything daring to display faith in public. Personally, if the atheists want to decide what messages people can and can’t send from space, then they can damn well put their own manned space program together. I for one would be more than pleased to see a few of them strap a bomb thirty three stories high to their collective asses, and light the blue touch paper.
History tends to lean towards it looking like people of faith have been the ones to get us there.
The Supreme Court tossed the law suit and Time had this to say…:
December 25, 2006 at 2:00 am
Atheists getting so cranked up about other people believing in God always makes me suspect that they are not as sure as they sound and are trying to get everyone to reinforce their atheism (as if all of the nagging doubt they have is external rather than internal and can be avoided by getting everyone else to stop talking about it).
I know what I beleive. And due to the consequences of unbelief in that system, I want others to believe as well. But is they don’t, I don’t get so strident about it.
December 25, 2006 at 2:54 am
I never read this before - beautiful.
KRM: I figure that atheism is a kind of religion in itself, and just like every other religion it has its fanatics. Of course, some religious systems are more conducive to fanaticism than others - I am not sure that atheism is one of those.
December 25, 2006 at 6:33 am
Atheists getting so cranked up about other people believing in God always makes me suspect that they are not as sure as they sound…
Huh. That’s what I’ve always thought about their religious counterparts, which are far more numerous.
December 25, 2006 at 8:42 am
Angie - There is good reason for someone who does follow a Christian faith to be at least a bit missionary about it (it is commanded after all, and there is the whole Pascal’s wager kind of concept). Of course, there is never any excuse for being obnoxious about it. For atheists though, why be missionary about it?
It also seems to me that full fledged atheists have a higher percentage of obnoxious missionary sorts (the folk who are not strident tend to taper off while still in the agnostic stage).
For the astronauts, it is a great story. Even better than the inadvertent open mic slip of “This orange juice tastes like shit” in a broadcast that featured a Tang commercial.
December 25, 2006 at 1:27 pm
For atheists though, why be missionary about it?
I don’t see the point in atheist missionary zeal, myself.
But, as I was going to say in a longer comment that I surpressed, there are plenty of people who are obnoxious about something. They know better than you do, and they’re going to let you know it.
Some of these people choose to be obnoxious about cars, sports, gadgets, music, literature, etc. Some choose to be obnoxious about religion.
If you think that atheism has a higher percentage of these people than religion, then I suggest you simply haven’t moved in the right circles.
Come to think of it, perhaps atheist missionary zeal is only a method of revenge for those atheists who did move in the right circles.
…there is the whole Pascal’s wager kind of concept…
You think God cares that you believe only because there’s no percentage in atheism? Or, what if you believe in the Christian God, and God really turns out to be a giant purple lizard named Barney? But a jealous sort of a Barney.
Merry Christmas, dear old religious fanatics!
December 25, 2006 at 2:47 pm
Read a little about the aforementioned Madilyn Murray O’hara.
She was a zealous campaigner against Christianity, a compulsive liar, convicted fraudster, spectacularly nasty person and throughly “fanatical”.
Her own son described her as “evil”.
I don’t give rats arse what people believe and they can mind their own business about my beliefs. That’s how we get by each day with bloody conflict in most places of the world. I see fuck all difference between fanatical atheists and islamofascists.
A fanatic is a fanatic and the sooner they’re all put away the better for all.
December 25, 2006 at 5:25 pm
You had to bring up Barney, didn’t you? I think my nightmares are going to return now…
December 28, 2006 at 7:10 pm
I don’t have enough faith to be an athiest.
December 29, 2006 at 6:51 am
MandM - Is that your own observation, or did you read Geisler & Turek’s book of that title?