Since I switched to my own blog, I have more freedom to deal with topics that interest me just because they do.

I found this story on the “inter-webs”, and it just struck me funny on one level, and a little scary on another as there are people who will buy into it.

We have just commemorated the first landing on the moon, and most of us who were alive then can remember exactly where we were, and with whom we were when we watched it on what was probably the only television in our homes at the time.

My class was in its last full month of a year long novitiate (yes, there was a time I felt I had a vocation to a religious life and pursued it) where we had no television, so we had to come down off the hill where the novitiate was to the college below that had some televisions.

We were sent to the biology classroom that had tiered seating.

I was in the second row, just behind a Salesian priest visiting from Italy, who just happened to be bald, but not completely. I could see the television without any obstruction as he was just short enough for his head to be at the very bottom of the screen.

As the lunar lander was approaching the moon’s surface, the priest reached up to scratch an itch on his bald spot, slowly bringing his hand toward his head in a very slow arc as he leaned forward in rapt attention.

The closer the lander got to the surface of the moon, the more he leaned forward for a good look, and the slower the arc of his arm.

His finger tips finally reached his itch as Walter Cronkite intoned, “The Eagle has landed”.

I saw both the major and minor events happen simultaneously.

To this day, and especially on the anniversary of the landing, that whole scenario comes to my mind clearly.

We all assumed a future that included space exploration had begun at that moment, and beyond discussions of the ramifications of that in science classes, the possibility of meeting life on other planets and what that meant both theologically and philosophically were also discussed in the relevant classes.

As conservative as some of the priests and brothers at the college were, many being old world Italians of a certain age, the attitude was open and accepting of possibility.

One has to realize  that what was by all accounts a conservative religious environment 45 years ago turns out to have been more liberal than what religion has become since.

Kenneth Alfred “Ken” Ham, who is a year younger than I am, and so has seen the same world that I have, is a former science teacher and president of Answers in Genesis, a Christian group that operates the Creation Museum in Kentucky.

He recently debated Bill Nye the Science Guy on whether creation should be considered on a par with science when it comes to dealing with the origins of the universe.

He claims that the universe is 6,000 years old in spite of scientific evidence to the contrary, because of what is said in the Bible.
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He has become persona non grata at Creationist conferences because he speaks of other Christians in the most unchristian of terms, but he still manages to raise money for his Creation Museum and his Noah’s Ark themed park.

In reviewing his debate with Bill Nye, his home country’s Australian Broadcasting Corporation said it “drew world attention, once again, on the United States as the home of whacky Christianity”.

Now as people remember the first walk on the moon, he has stated that it is pointless spending money in the search for extra-terrestrial life because it rebukes God and because aliens are damned to hell anyway.

Take that Mr. Spock.

You’re a nice guy Obi Wan, it’s just too bad you won’t be saved.

“I’m shocked at the countless hundreds of millions of dollars that have been spent over the years in the desperate and fruitless search for extraterrestrial life. Of course, secularists are desperate to find life in outer space, as they believe that would provide evidence that life can evolve in different locations and given the supposed right conditions!
And I do believe there can’t be other intelligent beings in outer space because of the meaning of the gospel. You see, the Bible makes it clear that Adam’s sin affected the whole universe. This means that any aliens would also be affected by Adam’s sin, but because they are not Adam’s descendants, they can’t have salvation. One day, the whole universe will be judged by fire, and there will be a new heavens and earth. God’s Son stepped into history to be Jesus Christ, the “Godman,” to be our relative, and to be the perfect sacrifice for sin — the Savior of mankind.”

For Star Trek fans, and those who enjoyed My Favorite Martian, he had this to say as well:

“Jesus did not become the ‘GodKlingon’ or the ‘GodMartian’! Only descendants of Adam can be saved. God’s Son remains the “Godman” as our Savior. In fact, the Bible makes it clear that we see the Father through the Son (and we see the Son through His Word). To suggest that aliens could respond to the gospel is just totally wrong.”
He condemns scientists because of their desire to explore our universe and potentially discover other intelligent life-forms, which could give clues to the origins of life.
“The answers to life’s questions will not be found in imaginary aliens but in the revelation of the Creator through the Bible and His Son, Jesus Christ, who came to die on a Cross to redeem mankind from sin and death that our ancestor, Adam, introduced”.

Neil deGrasse Tyson may object to the rejection of curiosity when it comes to examining the universe, but as a scientist his reactions to this are to be expected.

If you really want to know how crazy this guy is, Pat Robertson, the resident crazy of the Religious Right responded to Ham by saying,

“Let’s face it, there was a bishop … who added up the dates listed in Genesis and he came up with the world had been around for 6,000 years. There ain’t no way that’s possible. To say that it all came about in 6,000 years is just nonsense and I think it’s time we come off of that stuff and say this isn’t possible.We’ve got to be realistic that the dating of Bishop Ussher just doesn’t comport with anything that’s found in science, and you can’t just totally deny the geological formations that are out there.
Let’s be real. Let’s not make a joke of ourselves”.

And for someone who believes in God and all that He is, Ken Ham seems to be a little blasphemous as he does not seem to want to accept that in our expansive universe, God can do whatever He wants and is capable of doing it.

I have this image in my mind of an alternate ending to the Star Trek movie “First Contact”.

Since people are waiting for the second coming, and no one knows what it will look like, I see the Vulcan ship landing in front of Zefram Cochoran, the door opening, the ramp extending, and, when the person coming out lowers his hood, it’s Jesus.

Bazinga!