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Apollo 8 Astronaut Re-Creates 1968 Christmas Broadcast To Earth
Hugh Pickens DOT Com writes "AP reports that standing by a part of the Apollo 8 spacecraft he once rode, retired astronaut James Lovell read the 1968 Christmastime broadcast from the day he and two others became the first humans to orbit the moon marking the 45th anniversary of the orbit and the famous broadcast. 'The idea of bringing people together by a flight to the moon where we encompassed everybody in our thoughts is still very valid today,' says Lovell. 'The words that we read are very appropriate.' Millions tuned in on Dec. 24, 1968, when Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Lovell circled the moon. A television camera on board took footage of the crater-filled surface as the astronauts read Bible verses describing the creation of Earth. They circled 10 times and began reading from the Book of Genesis on the last orbit. 'It's a foundation of Christianity, Judaism and Islam,' Lovell said of choosing Genesis. 'It is the foundation of most of the world's religions. ... They all had that basis of the Old Testament.' Lovell says at the time the astronauts weren't sure who would be listening and how the broadcast would be taken. The famous "Earthrise" photo was also taken during the mission. Lovell closed with the same message the astronauts did in 1968. '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.'"
It's become really foggy in my mind. Anybody can remind me which state it was they played the movie inside of?
Moderating "-1, Disagree" is simple censorship. Have the guts to post your opinion. -- Spazmania (174582)
The book of Genesis is certainly not the foundation of most of the world's religions. There are hundreds of religions with more than a million followers each. In demographic terms it may be closer, with followers of Abrahamic religions making up close to half of the world population. However there are billions adhering to other faiths, especially Hinduism and Buddhism.
As divided as we all seem to be these days, Christmas still seems to be a time when we each can remove these mental boundaries and see humanity for what it is, regardless of our religious (or lack thereof) preferences.
In nature, when it's summer time, and food is plenty, generally wild animals fight for food, fight for mates, and fight for whatever else they see fit to fight over. But when it's cold, food is scarce and everything seems to be fighting to live, even some wild animals share what is available.
Merry Christmas everyone. I hope it was/is filled with the things that you love most.
Politics; n. : A religion whereby man is god.
China went to the moon. Now go dig out some of the cool stuff NASA did before we started funding useless wars for no gain instead.
We can't look like we're second to china...
Remind everyone what cool stuff we used to do.
Oh. By the way. You can't spend any money to do it.
I know you can’t be a dumbass and make the astronaut corps, so I’m a little confused as to how he could be saying something so stupid. The Old Testament is the foundation of exactly three of the world’s major religions (and that’s counting Judaism as arguably major.) It’s irrelevant to half the world’s population.
Did they orbit the Moon again?
Would have been exciting to be around back when Sputnik took off or men orbited or landed on the moon.
Wonder how long it will be until another major leap for humanity.
Perhaps the Wright Brothers achieving flight or Columbus discovering the New World fits in that category.
These days, we have to settle for technological achievements like the start of the world wide web or the launch of the iPhone --- maybe New Horizons flying past Pluto will be a bit of a "first ever" moment for humanity here in a bit over a year.
Priest: "Universe from nothing, no laws of physics, sped up time"+ huge discrepancies. Creationism? No. Big Bang Theory
Happy Grav-Mass!
Why not celebrate comprehensible laws of physics that got your astronaut asses to the damn Moon by honoring Isaac Newton? You know, someone who was actually born on December 25th?
You can ask many a thirtysomething and younger nowadays, and even some fourtysomething, "Did humans
walk on the moon in your lifetime" and most will know the answer and some will respond "Did they ever?".
Yet these are the millions going down the street heads down, ears cupped, submerged into their own lives (and
thousands of so called 'friends' waiting to hear if the corner they rounded just now was to the left or right), these
lives totally and entirely framed within some 4x3 illumination.
You must be new here. Nobody bothers going to TFA because we already know it'll be useless. You need to bing [to keep with the original astroturfing above] for the real article yourself.
Sleep your way to a whiter smile...date a dentist!
Depends on who you ask. :)
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I can't help but picture Lovell sitting on his porch, reminiscing of how great we were and how good the times were and how much everything was better back then... ...and being one of the few people who're right when they say everything used to be better... even the future.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
If you're talking about the number of sects and splinter groups, then maybe "It is the foundation of most of the world's religions. ... They all had that basis of the Old Testament." But if you're talking about the population of believers, the Hindus and Buddhists might have a thing or two to say about that.
I do not fail; I succeed at finding out what does not work.
Lumping all religions together and then assigning blame to "religion" for many discreet misdeeds committed by practitioners of various religions is like lumping together all secular thought and then blaming "secularism" for all non-religious bad acts. Sorry, but physics is not responsible for what some 1930's Germans did with phrenology, and Chemistry is not at fault for Stalin's massacres. Catholics are not responsible for human sacrifices by the Aztecs, Protestant Christians are entirely blameless for both the Crusades and the Inquisition.
WHAT somebody believes and what ACTIONS that person takes as a result are FAR more important than whether or not a person HAS beliefs.... and that goes just as much for religious beliefs as for non-religious beliefs. You might like to slime "religion" but those same religious people have done more to feed, heal, clothe, and educate people than any atheist groups have ever done.
Oh, and while the Apollo missions were great scientific and technical accomplishments, most of the people involved where Christians and/or Jews and the overall endeavor was a fantastic HUMAN achievement that also involved the human spirit, philosophy, art, culture, etc
Last I checked neither India nor China follow any of the Abrahmic religions dominantly. They constitute at-least 40% of world population? (even back in '68)..
I don't really see much point in getting involved in a religious discussion, but just to set the record straight -- most wars are caused by the personal ambition and greed of the ruling class, and seldom have anything to do with religious beliefs of one side or the other. Jonathon Kolkey's World Wide War Project (www.worldwidewarproject.com) contains a body of supporting material for his thesis, which is generally borne out by examining various wars in history. At most, religion seems to be used as part of a vague, cynical appeal to a wide range of values and emotions, including cultural differences, nationality, past grievances, logical fallacies ("they break the small end of the egg, so they're evil!"), and so on. Even the Crusades seemed to be as much about an epic land grab as anything else.
Merry Christmas.
See my blog http://ilovecookes.blogspot.com/ for light hearted technical information.
Except for non-Abrahamic religions such as Hinduism, Buddhism and Shintoism (which by the way encompass more people.)
No, they don't.
I know, why bring actual data into a quantitative discussion...
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
In the fantastic HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" there was an entire episode entitled "1968" that conveys exactly that point. The last bit of dialog is someone in Mission Control relaying congratulatory telegrams to the crew capsule as they travel back to earth, with one being a telegram from someone that simply says "You saved 1968."
Slashdot still doesnâ(TM)t support Unicode after it was added to the HTML standard in 1997.
Odd that you're modded up, but responses (many very good) were modded offtopic. So I'll take my my downmod too -- your comment is not only barely on-topic (you only used the topic to bash religion) and it's flamebait.
What is wrong with a religious scientist using religion to celebrate a scientific achievement that caused him (and many others) to have a religious experience? Over half of the world's scientists worship in one religion or another.
Your troll is especially offensive being posted on Christians' most holy day and your link about something that happened four hundred years ago was icing on your trollcake. Are you going to say the Holocaust didn't happen this coming passover? It's the same damned thing, asshole.
Your bigotry is forgiven, though. That's what Christians do. That's what Christianity is about -- love and forgiveness.
Now repent your damned trolling.
Free Martian Whores!
The facts are we spend more money on "poverty prevention" which does nothing to stop it. We could give evry poor person a hundred grand for all the cash we spend on "poverty" but we dont, and why not?
have you seen my sig? there are many others like it but none that are the same
Not if we don't see to it that they are fed and housed, we won't.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.
Christ, if he existed (there's no evidence for that), wasn't born on the 25th -- or even in December,
Biblical scholars say that Dec 25 was the date of conception.
Santa isn't a Christian symbol. The tree isn't a Christian symbol. Commercialism and gift giving isn't a Christian symbol.
Very true. Saint Nicholas was a real priest, but he was a mortal man who died.
contradicts itself repeatedly,
Examples?
lacks validation by even one direct, contemporaneous witness
The 1st century Roman historian Josephus
Every once in a while, one of you starts to think clearly, and that's the end of the magical thinking.
And once in a while one of you finds God, although I personally know only one such person, who was raised in an atheist household and found God after a bout of homelessness.
Of course religion can be misused by evil men, there is nothing in the world that can't be.
Free Martian Whores!
No, they don't.
Sure
Non-contemporaneous. Josephus, AKA Yosef Ben Matityahu A.D. (37 ~100+). Not at all contemporaneous with the time Christ was reported (by the bible) to have lived. There's no overlap at all. Christ would have died before Josephus was even born. So he won't do -- he's in the exact same position of someone born after the Heaven's Gate UFO cult had come and gone, attesting to the reality of the UFO itself, even though he never could have seen it himself, even to the extent that the UFO probably never existed at all, just as there is no actual evidence for Christ -- so far -- except the existence of the cult itself.
Agreed. However, my point is that the vast majority of religion, and particularly Christianity, is inherently evil. Christianity espouses (and worse, imposes) many harmful ideas in the name of a constipated, selfish morality. I have said many times, and will repeat here for the benefit of this conversation, that if Christians kept their craziness out of the legal system and out of government, I'd have no particular objection to any adult practicing/believing. Or, if they eschewed the craziness entirely and simply quietly worshipped with no attempts to enforce those ideas on others. However, that's not the case. From blue laws to sex to words we can or can't say to bibles in the courtroom and 6000-year old planet myths as (supposedly) science in schools, Christianity is highly active as an invasive, harmful force. It is in that role that I object to it most strongly. It has a terrible, dark history of interfering with other people's lives; I take that as a strong cautionary note, one that can be seen still echoing and taking root in modern society.
I've fallen off your lawn, and I can't get up.