Monday 10 December 2007
In the shadow of the moon
A few weeks ago I wound up with a friend at the GFT (Glasgow Film Theatre) to see 'In the shadow of the moon', a British-made documentary about the Apollo space missions, featuring interviews with surviving members (notable exception, the apparently very reclusive Neil Armstrong). The film captured the awesomeness and sheer riskiness of the whole space travel experience. I was struck by the levels of technology, human ingenuity and teamwork required to orchestrate and mobilise such an enterprise. Like the brilliance and risk of plane flight ramped up several orders of magnitude. Even with all those ruthlessly pain-staking safety measures, there was no negating the sheer vulnerability of those men strapped into a capsule on top of what was basically an enormous firework, its' balance as fine as a pencil as it was hurled upwards from the launchpad (they could feel the shimmying as it righted itself). In short, you might say: madness. Mike Collins, the Apollo 11 command module operator, described the sequence of what had to happen and be done during the trip as like a 'daisy chain' of risk; if any one link in that chain had been broken, it could have spelt disaster. Alongside dream-like footage of astronauts' weightless gambolling in the lunar desert, were some profound reflections from the interviewees on the effect the experience had had on them. A sense of the earths' beauty and fragility granted by seeing it suspended in space; of the smallness of earths' problems and preoccupations when its' orb could be hidden behind your thumb; and of transcendence - the overwhelming feeling from this vantage point of an embracing, over-arching power and purpose. When one of them mentioned having joined a bible study post-mission and becoming a Christian, there was an audible tutting from at least one person in the audience; which I felt reflected a broader public view: vague sense of transcendence and higher power, ok; specific religious commitment - or at least talking about it, not ok. But to conclude: peach of a film.
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15 comments:
Bruce, brear in mind (i presume) that you only heard one person tutting.
However Jim irwin (I've actually met him) started looking for Noah's ark, which is a bit bonkers.
Possibly more than one, hence my small edit!
Why do you think people might be hostile?
I could give you several possible reasons (although I doubt many people are hostile, I think most non christians are apathetic), but I would be interested in hearing your views why some people are hostile - or even apathetic.
Watching Earthrise from the moom
we see the cradle of the human race
glimmering like a sapphire
set in the jewelled crown of space.
Jimmy wrote:
"Watching Earthrise from the moon
we see the cradle of the human race
glimmering like a sapphire
set in the jewelled crown of space."
It amazing isn't it... the deadly universe around us, and our tiny home right there for all to see... so small...
Lee
Inspired by a picture of earth taken by Voyager 1, Carl Sagan wrote:
"Look again at that dot. That's here. That's home. That's us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every "superstar," every "supreme leader," every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there-on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.
The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.
Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.
The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.
It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we've ever known."
I agree with Bruce, it was a great film indeed, and very educational. For more infromation about it you can visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Shadow_of_the_Moon
http://www.intheshadowofthemoon.com/
Carl Sagan, quoted by billy, wrote: "Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves."
I disagree with this. The vastness of the universe only illustrates to me how huge and amazing God is, and how much He must have cared to put the effort in to create the one planet that had just the right conditions to support life.
Heather,
If god was there, would that not suggest he was limited? Why actually make the overwhelming majority of the universe uninhabitable to his "special" creation?
Why make a solar system that throws meteors into us, why make a planet that suffers drought?
I would find a 6ooo year old universe with just one planet in it better evidence for god. There are probably billions of billions of planets (that may contain life), and so much space in the universe, I find it hard to understand how anyone could think we are special.
How do you ecplain disease and volcanoes? Do you think god created them to show "how much he cared"?
Finally, I presume you think there is evidence of something that can help us, can you provide it?
Heather-
"I disagree with this. The vastness of the universe only illustrates to me how huge and amazing God is, and how much He must have cared to put the effort in to create the one planet that had just the right conditions to support life".
I disagree with that. Firstly- the one planet that we KNOW OF. Secondly, it's a pretty bizarre way to do it, creating the Universe, then waiting around ten billion years for Earth to form, then another four billion for us to evolve, all so he could send Christ to save us. Sounds a bit implausible.
Hi Heather
The vastness of the universe only illustrates to me how huge and amazing God is,
What about wasteful?
And what does it have to say about man's importance, something the bible claims is the most important one by God... this seems wrong in a universe so huge.
Lee
Heather-
by the way, feel free to stop by my blog "musings of a strange mind". Always trying to get more theist contributors- Jimmy's pretty much holding the fort over there at the moment.
Poor Heather, with this moderation turned on it looks like 3 atheists have just all jumped and attacked.
Sorry... have a word with Bruce.
Lee
Oh dear, you really don't like moderation do you Lee? I wouldn't worry too much on Heather's count, it's unlikely she'll have had a chance to revisit this blog since posting... Glad to have her comment though as my fellow film viewer on this occasion. Lee, the reality is that you, Billy and Jonathan devote far more time to reading and commenting on my blog than anyone else I know, with no need for encouragement from me. There's no denying you currently dominate the comments; you are true evangelists! I'm quite happy to have your comments and appreciate your often good humour. But the reality is, if I remove moderation in this situation, it would encourage you guys to comment even more prolifically than you already do, discouraging anyone of a different persuasion who might drop by from even reading let alone commenting - and slowing down my own response yet further. So I'm sticking with moderation. Sorry if you don't like that but works best for me just now and as you've acknowledged before, it's my blog. Billy I just hope any still lost comments come out in the wash.
The Carl Sagan quote is eloquent and thought-provoking; thanks. For now I'll just mention that the bible itself contains a humble perspective of mankind's smallness in the universe, see Ps 8:vv3-5 in particular.
I'm slowly working through comments from last post, trying to organise them and my responses a little as you've flushed up so many pheasants so to speak that any response takes a little organising. Cheers.
Oh dear, you really don't like moderation do you Lee?
Not if debate and discussion is the main aim.
I am understanding your point of view more though... we atheists do seem to enjoy the debate a lot more than the theist.
Must go
Lee
Of course Psalm 8:3-5 provides no argument, it is a statement of faith
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