Walking on the moon a sin?

[ryan]

Hey guys, i was watching the movie ''The Mist'' (not the sort of movie where you like a happy ending) and one women says that walking on the moon was a sort of sin, to people really believe that?
I know it says in the bible to do not try to match gods powers but...

 

[JamesG]

Are you talking about the crazy religious antagonist in that movie?

I'm sure there are fruitbats out there that think so, but no more so than think the world is flat etc. I think King was just using that as an example of how extreme and detached from reality she was.

 

[Belisarius]

First up, who cares what religious obessives think? They're always trying to label various behaviours a sin. Basically, in their minds, Things I don't do = sin.

Secondly, no less an ecclesiastical authority than the Pope said it was OK.

"The Pope has been fully informed by the American government of its plan to send men to the Moon and His Holiness has found no reason to protest. I assure you again that everything is all right and in accordance with Biblical teaching"

James Michener, Space p547

Admittedly this is a fictional account of Apollo, but I have seen other sources that state the same: the Pope gave his approval to the Apollo missions.

So that's all right then.

 

[bujin]

First up, who cares what religious obessives think? They're always trying to label various behaviours a sin. Basically, in their minds, Things I don't do = sin.

Secondly, no less an ecclesiastical authority than the Pope said it was OK.

"The Pope has been fully informed by the American government of its plan to send men to the Moon and His Holiness has found no reason to protest. I assure you again that everything is all right and in accordance with Biblical teaching"

James Michener, Space p547

Admittedly this is a fictional account of Apollo, but I have seen other sources that state the same: the Pope gave his approval to the Apollo missions.

So that's all right then.

That raises an interesting question. If the Pope had said "no, you can't do that", would the US have scrapped the Apollo programme? Especially with the political climate at the time. I doubt the Russians would have worried too much about what the Pope said.

 

[JamesG]

Well... Kennedy was Catholic. So maybe.

 

[liber]

Yes you are right,it's sin!
Sin that I will never walk on the moon...

 

[Belisarius]

That raises an interesting question. If the Pope had said "no, you can't do that", would the US have scrapped the Apollo programme? Especially with the political climate at the time. I doubt the Russians would have worried too much about what the Pope said.

The Pope is much more a politician than a spiritual anything. No politician would make the mistake of annoying a powerful ally over some trivial matter. After all, it's true: the Bible has no prohibition about landing on the Moon.

In fact both the Old Testament pyscho-prophets and the much more reasonable New Testament prophet called Jesus ignored space travel completely. I would guess that their silence on this subject should be taken as tacit approval.

 

[SiberianTiger]

Why should it be a sin? Dante Alighieri had already been there, as well as in some more distant places, and told the story - long ago!

 

[Ghostrider]

Dante? I thought it was Ludovico Ariosto.
BTW, our religion teacher at the Catholic school I attended stated that Moon missions, and manned space exploration and eventual colonization, was in complete accordance with God's Will:

- our planet has some good gravity, but not enough that we cannot feasibly reach space

- we've got a Moon big enough so we can see it from Earth and be inspired, near enough that we can reach it, and big enough so we can orbit it and walk upon it, and lift off and go back home

- our planet is full of fuel and materials to build rockets from

... Hence it's only natural that God wished for us to go to the Moon.

 

[bujin]

Dante? I thought it was Ludovico Ariosto.
BTW, our religion teacher at the Catholic school I attended stated that Moon missions, and manned space exploration and eventual colonization, was in complete accordance with God's Will:

- our planet has some good gravity, but not enough that we cannot feasibly reach space

- we've got a Moon big enough so we can see it from Earth and be inspired, near enough that we can reach it, and big enough so we can orbit it and walk upon it, and lift off and go back home

- our planet is full of fuel and materials to build rockets from

... Hence it's only natural that God wished for us to go to the Moon.

And that's why He "filled" the space in between the Earth and the Moon with a deadly near-vacuum... :dry:

 

[Bluefinger]

And that's why He "filled" the space in between the Earth and the Moon with a deadly near-vacuum... :dry:

As they always say... the devil is in the details.

 

[Eagle]

Don't forget the other people who say it is a sin to go to the moon and other planets. That it is anathema to harm a single xenobacterium, or to terraform. (If I'm too vague I'm referring to the godless hyperenviromentalists who want the human population reduced to 7 million worldwide.)

 

[Thunder Chicken]

And that's why He "filled" the space in between the Earth and the Moon with a deadly near-vacuum... :dry:

...and then gave us the brains to develop pressurized spacecraft and suits

 

[Urwumpe]

the bigger the challenge, the bigger the reward...

 

[Biscuit]

I've actually talked to people in the past who flat out believe that going to the moon or any of the other planets is a sin because they see it as man trying to touch heaven. They see it as being the exact same thing as the tower of Babylon.

But then, these are the same people that believe the Earth is only 3000 years old, and that the dinosaur fossils are either faked by scientists, or put there on purpose by God to fool people.

... go figure.

 

[Belisarius]

I've actually talked to people in the past who flat out believe that going to the moon or any of the other planets is a sin because they see it as man trying to touch heaven. They see it as being the exact same thing as the tower of Babylon.

Err... that's Tower of Babel. And it never stopped the medieval churchmen from building their cathedral spires ever higher.

 

[Urwumpe]

Err... that's Tower of Babel. And it never stopped the medieval churchmen from building their cathedral spires ever higher.

Exactly and with the same intention.

That anybody now has the possibility to read the bible at home, is a great gift. People should just take it and use it. There are many cool things inside the bible, as well as many corpses in it's attic. It is often contradictory and inconsistent (The old laws mentioned inside the bible must have been made by a chauvinist and lonely man and not by a god). But often also contains moments of real enlightenment.

I would dare to say: Without the enlightenment, the bible offers to those, who accept to read it without the ballast of a fundamentalist religion, we would not have been sending humans to the moon. Because the bible and it's core messages had been also an important factor in the history of science - many important philosophers and scientists drew their strength and ethics from their faith.

If you really read the bible as intelligent person, you would also not believe that the results of the original sin were a punishment and you should never touch the tree of knowledge again. They were the price of knowledge for me. And as long as we continue to pay this price, we should also be harvesting from the tree of knowledge.

Of course... this is now really fatalist and radical.

 

[Eagle]

That anybody now has the possibility to read the bible at home, is a great gift. People should just take it and use it. There are many cool things inside the bible, as well as many corpses in it's attic. It is often contradictory and inconsistent (The old laws mentioned inside the bible must have been made by a chauvinist and lonely man and not by a god). But often also contains moments of real enlightenment.

http://www.thebricktestament.com/
Your favorite hijinks done with Legos. But yeah, the old testament is WILD.

 

[n122vu]

@Urwumpe - just to clarify(from my point of view), not all knowledge was forbidden by God. The tree was actually called the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, not simply the "Tree of Knowledge." It was the good/evil knowledge that man was forbidden to know. If the knowledge of the solar system and universe was forbidden, I feel an account of it's creation (as believed by us Christians & others - take it for what you will) would not have been included in Genesis.

Just my two cents...

 

[Belisarius]

http://www.thebricktestament.com/
Your favorite hijinks done with Legos. But yeah, the old testament is WILD.

Now that's cool... As a Lego fan, I'd always wanted to see the Massacre at Jericho in plastic brick form. A true inspiration.

http://www.thebricktestament.com/joshua/massacre_of_jericho/jos06_21g.jpg

"And they utterly destroyed all that was in the city, both man and woman, young and old, and ox, and sheep, and ass, with the edge of the sword...
And they burnt the city with fire, and all that was therein: only the silver, and the gold, and the vessels of brass and of iron, they put into the treasury of the house of the LORD."
Joshua 6, 21 & 26

Old time religion, it's good enough for me