cbostrum@watdaisy.UUCP (Calvin Bruce Ostrum) (06/30/83)
Someone here the other day told me that 5 of the astronauts who had
been on Apollo moon-landing missions had become Christians either during
or shortly after their space journeys. I knew it had happened to a few,
but 5 seems like an awful lot; this is about a third of the total, isnt it?
We both agreed that there must be some reason for this; the numbers
were too large to attribute to chance. I think that the immense situation
of stress that these men were placed in, along with the viewing of marvelous
sights they had never seen before, as well as the cultural indoctrination
they received, even subconsciously, handily accounts for their conversions.
The other person disagrees, claiming that these men were so intelligent
and trained to handle the situation to such an extant that such a conversion
could not occur unless they had "learned something" that most of us do not
presently know. What this is, the person would not or could not say. I have
to add that he is not religious, but these comments of his
are leading me to believe that he must be despite his claims.
What do people out there think of the "men who found God on the moon"?
Calvin Ostrum, Dept Computer Science, University of Waterloo
...{decvax,allegra,utzoo}!watmath!watdaisy!cbostrumbch@unc.UUCP (06/30/83)
I'm not sure it means anything. A large proportion of the Watergate con- spirators have also found God. I would think the common factor is stress and the isolation of "being different" from everyone else. In the case of Buzz Aldrin, a lot of other things happened to him before he became religious. He is the most famous case, I don't know about the others. Byron Howes UNC - Chapel Hill
pmd@cbscd5.UUCP (07/01/83)
About the astronauts who became believers after their trip (Irving (sp?) is one I think) we could speculate until the moon turns red. Why dosen't someone just write and ask one of them; or sign up for the next trip to the moon and see for yourself? Of course if you talk to them and they tell you that their experience on the moon was the pivotal point to their conversion; you should tell them that "the burden of proof rests on the claimant" and that they will have to take you to the moon to prove it to you. Just having some fun. Paul Dubuc
thekid@rlgvax.UUCP (07/02/83)
2 July 83 I think that 5 of anything is statistically irrelevent. *Especially* when the five have shared a common experience, there is no way to separate the experience from the event; reductio ad absurdum: if I brain-wash 5 out of 7 people into believing that I am God, am I God? Regardless of how well-trained or intelligent the people are. Feeling the Deity of it All, thekid ...![ allegra, seismo, mcnc, we13 ]!rlgvax!thekid p.s. Interestingly enough, however, some of the men who went to the moon are the most persuasive/convincing proponents of the christian faith. p.p.s. Not to attack religion, can anyone think of anything more ridiculous than the cosmonaut who declared that he couldn't see God, I suppose he figured that God's been waiting just beyond the atmostphere for the past few million years...
tim@unc.UUCP (07/02/83)
What is the issue here? Why would it matter if they were converted as a result of their experiences in space or not? I wish people would be clearer on this group. ______________________________________ The overworked keyboard of Tim Maroney duke!unc!tim (USENET) tim.unc@udel-relay (ARPA) The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill