God & space

(cont'd from Saturday's post)

When will we go to the moon again? NASA's goal is 2024. SpaceX is aiming for 2023. When our astronauts get there, they'll read the Bible to their broadcast audience back on earth. And they'll take Holy Communion.

No, wait -- that's what astronauts did decades ago. Three astronauts on the 1968 Apollo 8 mission read Genesis 1:1-10 to their earthly audience on Christmas Eve while they orbited around the moon. That event was celebrated on a U.S. postage stamp with the words, "In the beginning God . . "

On the Apollo 11 mission in 1969, Buzz Aldrin took Holy Communion to give thanks to God before he followed Neal Armstrong onto the moon's surface. He says he did it to symbolize "the thought that God was revealing Himself there too, as man reached out into the universe. For there are many of us in the NASA program who do trust that what we are doing is part of God’s eternal plan for man."

Things are different in America today. Public expressions like these would probably not be tolerated. Few believers would risk it.

"While many Americans are still people of faith, the faith that inspired almost all early Americans has diminished as a public reality. Even the least religious of the American Founders spoke earnestly of the public duties we owe to our Creator."

Many people believe Apollo 11 was an accomplishment of American greatness. But what about our future? "Can America Be Great Without God?"

Buzz Aldrin talks about taking communion on the moon here.