In his documentary Brian Cox mentioned that the Apollo astronauts read the story of Earth's creation from the Book of Genesis from the bible.
Christians everywhere rejoiced when they heard the beautiful scripture read on Christmas Eve 1968 and saw the pictures of Earth filmed from the Moon. One man who was ten years old at the time said, "It was like receiving a Christmas greeting from the Moon. After one of the worst years ever the reading of Genesis by the astronauts brought new hope to Americans.
Any one wheter they are Christian, Aetheist of Agnostic can not help but be moved by the beautiful reading from Genesis about the creation of the earth. There is a poetry and a lyrical quality to the biblical language which coupled with the film footage of the beautiful picture of fragile Earth makes us all appreciate our wonderful world more.
An American lady who was a young mother at the time of the Apollo mission said, "I was preparing the turkey on Christmas Eve and I was watching the broadcast of the Apollo mission and I was moved beyond words by the beautiful message of the astronauts."
Brian Cox, however, says that the astronauts were influenced by the culture of their society of the time and dismissed the Christian message as 'superstition'.
Christians and Creationists were pleased to be reminded of the astronauts reading from Genesis from the dark side of the moon. There is something powerful and humbling about the astronauts being aware of God and his majesty and of their own mortality.
In the days of the Apollo Space Mission there was something for Americans to be proud of values of decency and virtue permeated the whole of society. In our own uncertain times we do not know whether a meteor will strike the Earth or whether the Apocalpsye is upon us. In these end times we do not know if we will be living under the last pope, Peter the Roman, and when and if Jesus will return any day soon. It would be wonderful to turn the clock back and return to a more innocent and less cynical time when the Apollo Space Mission really did give hope to he world of a better future for humanity.
Bush ended the Shuttle programme and we have not have manned space programmes for many years.These three men gave us hope that we could fashion a better future. We will never forget the awesome sight of the entire globe in the camera's eye, and the? wishing of a Merry Christmas to all of us on the Good Earth. We need such a benediction today.
